


Sporting and Sportsmanship

by lyingmap



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Sports, Angst, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Christianity, Despair, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, Female-Centric, Femslash, First Time, Forgiveness, Heartbreak, Lesbian Sex, Religion, Sin and Redemption, Unhealthy Relationships, Weiss is a shitlord
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-08
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-02-12 08:45:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 44,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2102985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lyingmap/pseuds/lyingmap
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Weiss Schnee, star of the Mistral University Maidens handball team, has an accident on the court with Ruby Rose, a new player for the Vale College Vixens. Sparks look pretty as they fly, but they also start fires.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This work is based on Tumblr user lycanheiress adorable fan-art: http://lycanheiress.tumblr.com/post/93876666168/for-that-anon-who-requested-a-white-rose-version  
> The sport they are playing is Team Handball, which is mostly played in Europe, because lycanheiress's art was based off a GIF from the sport. And then it stuck. I'm not any kind of sports person, but this story stuck with me. Any errors in how Handball is played, or how college sports work, should be assumed to be the result of my general lack of sports knowledge.  
> This work was outlined before Volume 2, Episode 3 was released, and so Weiss remains an only child.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This work is based on Tumblr user lycanheiress adorable fan-art: http://lycanheiress.tumblr.com/post/93876666168/for-that-anon-who-requested-a-white-rose-version  
> The sport they are playing is Team Handball, which is mostly played in Europe, because lycanheiress's art was based off a GIF from the sport. And then it stuck. I'm not any kind of sports person, but this story stuck with me. Any errors in how Handball is played, or how college sports work, should be assumed to be the result of my general lack of sports knowledge.  
> This work was outlined before Volume 2, Episode 3 was released, and so Weiss remains an only child.

Ruby Rose, the Vale Vixens right wing, dribbled the ball down the court with the speed that had breached the Mistral Maidens' defense three times already. Weiss Schnee moved to intercept her, determined not to let it happen again. She saw Ruby Rose jump up and pass the ball to a teammate. Weiss tried to dodge, but the Vixen collided with her, in a complicated moment of sweat and momentum and rose scent, and fell to the floor. Weiss struggled to stay on her feet on the polished wood floor, but the next thing she knew, she was on top of Ruby with her hands… _oh._

"Hi Weiss," Ruby chirped. _She has silver eyes. Why didn't I notice earlier?_ Weiss stared into Ruby's eyes from a distance of a few inches for a long moment before she noticed the Vixen's wide grin, and the rapid rise and fall of the other girl's chest under her hand.

Adrenaline burning through her veins, Weiss pushed herself up and pulled Ruby to her feet. "Watch where you're going, you dolt!" She wished she could swallow the words, for the blinding grin across the Vixen's face wilted into a grimace.

"Glad you're not hurt," the Vixen said, and jogged across the court toward her captain and the rest of her team.

Weiss set her face to cover her regrets, turned, and stalked to her team captain. Pyrrha Nikos glanced down at her dispassionately. "Try to avoid a groping penalty, will you?"

"Shut up, Pyrrha," Weiss grumbled. She glanced toward the Vixens' huddle and saw Ruby Rose looking back at her. With a twinge in her chest, Weiss tore her eyes away and commanded herself to focus on the game.

###

The Mistral Maidens lost 28-32.

After the game, Weiss took a long cold shower, letting the icy water flay the sweat and failure off her skin. Beyond the flimsy curtain, she could hear her teammates shuffle out of the locker room, back to the carpools that would take them back to Mistral University. "Weiss?" asked Mistral's coach, Cindy Fall, from the locker room. "Has anyone seen Weiss?"

"I'm in the shower," she called, hoping the acoustics and the water would disguise the wobble in her voice. "I'll take the bus back."

"Okay," Ms. Fall said, and Weiss could hear the disappointment in her voice. She winced under the water, wishing she could be good enough for once. "Well, be safe. You did as well as you could out there."

"I will," Weiss said, sluicing cold water down her hair. She appreciated her coach's tact, but she wished Fall wouldn't lie to her so baldly. Because if Weiss had been doing her job, the Maidens would have won.

Weiss waited under the icy water until the noise from outside died, then turned off the water and slipped out of the shower. The locker room echoed back her quiet footsteps, and she revelled in the solitude. No one to judge or condemn her. No one to comfort or console her, but Weiss was used to that by now.

Wrapped in a towel, she sat on the bench in front of the lockers, stared at the wall of uncaring metal, and replayed the game in her mind. She'd been badly blindsided by the Ruby Rose's speed and precision, as again and again, Rose had torn through the Mistral defense before the Maidens could react. Even when Ruby hadn't directly scored, the Maidens' response had opened up gaps that the other Vixens had exploited. The Maidens had fought hard to narrow the score gap in the second half, but hadn't been able to do enough.

She wondered how long the mockery over her near-embrace with Ruby Rose would last, and winced at the thought. Her teammates knew she was gay, but the rest of the world did not, and the ribbing about being involved with an _enemy_ would be too much to bear. With a disgusted shake of her head, Weiss tried to bring her thoughts back onto the game, and ways to defeat Ruby Rose's speed.

The creak of the door shattered the serenity of the locker room, and Weiss spun on the bench. "Who's there?" she called out, just as Ruby Rose stuck her head around the bank of lockers. She took in Weiss' towel-clad state and disappeared with a squeak.

"Sorry, I didn't know anyone was in here!" Her voice rang through the locker room, and Weiss sighed in exasperation.

She dropped the towel and grabbed her clothes, then said in Ruby's general direction, "Come on out, I'd rather you be where I can see you." She started pulling on her clothes in short, jerky motions. Ruby, wearing khaki pants and a black shirt, shuffled sideways around the lockers, facing the bare concrete wall the entire time. Weiss sighed in exasperation as she pulled on a clean tanktop. "Are you like this with your teammates? And what are you doing here?"

"No, but you're not a teammate, you're a guest, and I work for the school!" Ruby said, not turning around. Weiss had to admit the view wasn't bad. "One of your teammates called us. She lost a cellphone, have you seen it?"

Weiss pulled on her shorts and stalked down the row of lockers. Something glittered beneath the bench, and she bent to pick up the cellphone. "Found it. Julia's. I'll get it back to her. You can go now."

"Thank you!" Ruby squeaked. "Good game today! Sorry I slammed into you there!"

Weiss bit back a scream of irritation. "You won. You don't have to rub it in."

Ruby's shoulders drooped. "I didn't mean it that way," she said in a much quieter voice, without the good cheer that set Weiss' teeth on edge. "I meant it was fun. And it would've been fun even if you'd won. I mean, winning is nice, but there's been games we lost that were a blast. It's supposed to be fun, you know?"

Weiss just stared at the back of Ruby's head. Ruby sounded like the nauseating _sportsmanship!_ and _everyone is a winner!_ pap that got shoved down everyone's throats by the American Handball League. "Easy to talk about fun when you're the one on top."

"I'm sorry you feel that way," Ruby said, her voice even smaller, and something in Weiss' chest snarled hungrily at the distress in her voice. I wish I could make it better somehow."

Suddenly, she wanted to hear Ruby whimper, wanted to hear the girl hurt the way she'd hurt Weiss. Something in her recoiled from the hunger, but she drove down the weakness and strode up behind Ruby until she could see the faint bulge of bra straps beneath the other girl's shirt, and smell her rose shampoo. She noted with some irritation that Ruby had a few inches of height on her. "You want to make it up to me?"

"Yeah?" Ruby asked shyly, her voice rising slightly. Weiss grabbed the Vixen's waist, jerked her around, and rose on tiptoes to press her lips to Ruby's. Ruby squeaked in shock, but responded with more enthusiasm and saliva than technique. Weiss growled in frustration and pushed Ruby back against the wall, a hot flame of desire blooming in her gut. Ruby's hand hesitantly slid along her waist, and Weiss grabbed her wrist and pinned it to the wall. She wanted to take Ruby apart, leave her in pieces on the floor the way she'd been left.

Some weak thing in her stomach, some quisling organ, turned and rose in revolt, and Weiss stepped back from Ruby. Despite the desire and disgust warring in her core, she made her face into ice, into stone, into the old mirrored mask that gave nothing away.

Ruby moaned in protest, reached for Weiss, and Weiss batted away the hand. She swallowed hot bile, cleared her throat, and asked, "What time do you get off?" Inwardly she cursed the burn in her throat that gave her voice a pack-a-day rasp.

Ruby's mouth moved wordlessly, then she shook her head and whispered, "Six. I get off at six."

Weiss scowled and glanced at her sports watch. Three. "Meet me at the bus stop. By the front entrance. The big glass building."

Ruby stared, a pink flush rising and blooming in her cheeks. Then she grinned from ear to ear and nodded, her entrancing silver eyes flashing. "The Business building. Gotcha."

Weiss grabbed the Vixen's shoulder and turned her toward the door. "Go back to work, I'll see you then."

Ruby scampered to the door, grinning over her shoulder, though the effect was ruined when she ran into the wall. She giggled, a high silver trill, and disappeared from view. A moment later, the door creaked open and closed, leaving Weiss alone in the locker room.

Weiss stared after her in disgust, then marched back to her things and began packing. _What the hell did I just do? And what do I do now?_

She marched out of the locker room with certainty in her step and a storm in her mind.

###

Ruby went through the rest of her shift with a grin plastered to her face, until the muscles in her cheeks ached with the strain, but she barely noticed as she reported the found cellphone to the athletic director Mr. Port, and helped to set up the gym for an evening basketball game. She'd been looking forward to watching the game after her shift, but now she had other plans. Assuming Weiss showed up at all…

 _Well, maybe she won't, but no way to control that,_ Ruby told herself sternly. She'd put up with her share of jokes and jibes after coming out in high school, but her adolescent forays into romance hadn't really gone anywhere, mostly stifled by her shyness and uncertainty, and her father's protectiveness. Certainly she'd never experienced anything like that amazing, breath-stealing, ravishing kiss, though she'd certainly dreamed about it, curled under the covers reading erotica on the Internet. Compared with the reality of hot breath, the wall against her back, and fingers like handcuffs on her wrist, those electronic fantasies seemed insubstantial as dreams.

She wondered what exactly Weiss had in mind. Though Ruby didn't exactly fear the idea of getting physical, she hoped she and Weiss could have a conversation. As much as she wanted more hot and heavy kisses - and _how_ she wanted them! - she knew next to nothing about the Mistral player. And Ruby wanted, more than mere kisses, a deep and timeless romance like Yang and her boyfriend, funny and affectionate and cuddly and committed - "sure as sunrise" in Yang's words. It was all too easy to picture walking with Weiss through a park or down a street, hand in hand, or pouring all her secrets into those elegant ears.

When her time came to clock out, Ruby sprinted out of the Athletics Office like she'd been shot from a cannon, and jogged up to the front of Vale College. As she reached the shiny-new Business building, she slowed to a walk to cool her muscles and catch her breath.

She checked her phone, then checked her hair in one of the Business building's tinted ground-floor windows. There were probably students inside laughing at her - goodness knew she'd been the one laughing at others fixing their hair and makeup in her classroom window, and she'd always wanted to call out through the glass "you look great!" or some other confidence-boosting affirmation. She paused one extra moment, waiting for voices from the glass, then turned away from the building. _Mustn't keep the lady waiting, after all._

Ruby rounded the corner and her mouth went dry. Weiss sat alone on the bus stop bench, looking down at her phone. Her platinum hair was gathered into a ponytail falling from the right side of her head down past the bench, secured with a bright metal-and-glass comb. _Right. She asked you, you're okay._

Ruby gathered her courage, crossed the expanse to the bus stop, and sat on the opposite end of the bench, making Weiss look up from her phone. "Hi."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be more after this. It's a very hard story to tell, but there will be a happy ending, of sorts.  
> All the characters have a lot of ground to cover to get where they're going. Buckle up.


	2. Chapter 2

Weiss had grabbed a quick snack from a dismal little canteen, and then eaten it outside the Vale College library while she sorted through her intentions. She hadn't been intending to ask the Rose girl for a date, but her father and his tutors had taught her to trust her intuitions and impulses, so rather than taking a bus back to Mistral, she sat and examined the decision for hidden upsides.

The Vale Vixens had surprised the Maidens badly, and with the Pacific championship around the corner, the Maidens could not afford surprises. Coach Fall had said over and over that she wanted to take the Maidens all the way to the national championships in Las Vegas. The Vale Vixens had proven that they could beat the Maidens, and the Maidens could not afford surprises. Ruby's speed wasn't the only surprise the Vixens had used to bedevil the Maidens - their coordination and teamwork had overcome the superior shooting of individual Mistral players even when Ruby wasn't on the court.

But unless Weiss missed the signs, Ruby was attracted to her, and that could have a use. Ruby was new to the league, but she'd seen how the Vixens trained, how Coach Oobleck managed the team, and how their tactics worked on the court. Even small details, the knowledge of the team's internal social dynamics, could have effects on the way the team played. Weiss realized she could bring whatever Ruby revealed about the Vixens' play back to Coach Fall, who as a former Olympic handball player knew how to put such information to good use.

A part of her twinged in uncertainty over using a naive girl's attraction to defeat her team, but Weiss drove over her weakness. Rose would have to learn eventually that the world wasn't like sports for little kids, where nobody kept score and everyone got the same trophy at the end. The real world was made by winners, and the losers either learned to survive or didn't. And if Ruby was as attracted to Weiss as she suspected, then the venture could have its own benefits.

After she ate, Weiss used the library bathroom to put on subtle makeup. She found a bright jewelled comb in her purse, and slipped it into her ponytail just above the white hair tie holding it in place. She wished she'd brought more attractive footwear than her battered athletic shoes, but victory required using the tools at hand, not the tools one wished for. An older woman standing next to her at the mirror looked down at her and said, "Honey, I hope they're worth it."

Weiss looked up at her. "They are."

"You go girl." The woman turned and exited the bathroom. Weiss checked the time on her phone, gave herself one last inspection, then left and started toward the bus stop. She reached the bus stop in plenty of time, and settled herself in to wait as the sky darkened and the lights around the campus came on.

 _I'm going to feel like a fool if that girl doesn't show up_ , she thought as she skimmed a US History reading on her phone. But if Ruby did not show, she could always call her roommate Pyrrha to pick her up, or take the bus.

"Hi," a voice said from her shoulder, and she looked up to see Ruby standing a few feet away from the bus stop bench. She wore the same uniform that she'd worn in the locker room, and her eyes seemed dull and shadowed in the gloom.

"Hi," Weiss said. "I'm glad you came."

"I'm glad you stayed." Ruby dropped down on the bench next to Weiss. "What did you want to do?"

Weiss, being an organized and efficient person, had created a list of local eateries by combing Yelp on her phone. "How about the IHOP at 22104 Maple?" She held up her phone so Ruby could see the screen.

"Where is that…" Ruby peered at the screen, then looked up and down Maple Boulevard. "Oh, that one! I've never been, but I haven't heard anything bad about that place. Is that where you want to go?"

"Yes." Weiss stood from the bench, gave Ruby a gracious smile, and led them off in what she hoped was the right direction. "So, Ruby, what's your major?"

"Civil engineering!" Ruby chirped. "I'm not taking any classes in it right now, I'm trying to get all my general-ed classes out of the way before I transfer to Mistral in a few years."

"Why not go to Mistral straight off?"

"Cheaper this way," Ruby shrugged with shadows in her eyes. "Between working for the school, and couple summer jobs, I can afford to save my financial aid for Mistral. And the commute's easier, my sister lives a few blocks that way." She gestured vaguely across Maple, where dense residential neighborhoods huddled behind the narrow commercial strip. Ruby smiled over at Weiss, her eyes flashing under the streetlights. "So what do you major in?"

"Business. I'm supposed to take over the family business, so I need to know what I'm doing." Weiss felt a pang of envy for Ruby. The Vale student had no obligations, no expectations, no family business full of employees to take care of. She could do whatever she chose, change her major or direction as much as she wanted. Weiss could not; her path had been set for her from a very young age.

"Family business? That's cool," Ruby said, totally oblivious to Weiss' envy. "What's your family do? If you don't mind me asking," she amended shyly.

"It's all right," Weiss shrugged. "My grandfather founded a chain of shoe stores."

"Oh." Ruby was silent for about two steps, then asked, "Not the Schneeker Stores?"

Weiss winced. "Yes, that's our business. We have other brands, but that was the first."

Ruby giggled and covered her grin with her hand. "You might not want to tell my sister that, she loves puns. We had no idea it was actually a family name, we just thought it was cute."

"Mmm." Weiss changed the topic away from her family. "So how did you get into handball? You're very fast."

"I did sports in high school," Ruby said, and there was something wistful in her voice. Before Weiss could ask what sport, Ruby went on, "I need something to blow off energy, so I can sit still and focus on class. But I didn't want the organization, and the competition, and the pressure."

"And handball isn't competitive?" Weiss raised her eyebrows. Coach Fall had turned the Mistral Maidens into a farm team for the American Olympic team, and accepted no dilettantes or party players on her team.

"Not really." Ruby shrugged, dismissing all of Weiss' ambitions and aspirations. "There's no stakes. We go out, we have fun, and if we lose nobody dies, nobody's lost anything important. As long as we have fun, that's the important thing."

"If you don't care about winning, how about letting us win our next game?" Weiss joked.

"That," Ruby said with exaggerated pomposity, and her nose in the air, "would not fit our definition of 'fun.' We can't make it _easy_ on you. Nice try, though."

 _Of course_ , Weiss thought scornfully as she faked a polite titter. _Your 'sportsmanship' only runs as far as your victory._

"How'd you get into handball? You seem to take it seriously - why not a serious competitive sport? Basketball or volleyball - I've heard Mistral has good teams for both."

"I wanted something that could take a back seat to my classes if I wanted," Weiss lied. In truth, she'd wanted a sport to add to her CV. But she'd been too intimidated by the higher-profile teams to actually try out and risk failing, until her roommate Pyrrha Nikos had invited her to join the handball team, which didn't have a tryout process. But that didn't sound good, so she tried to find the kind of line that someone like Ruby would swallow. "Now the team's… my sisters."

Weiss felt an odd, sad pang to realize that that was more truth than lie. The only people at Mistral she trusted were on her handball team. Pyrrha could be trusted come hell or high water, Emily Sustrai was clever and witty, always ready with a joke or a quip, Julia Beria kind and insightful, even if she sang the most _atrocious_ Bollywood songs at the drop of a hat. She couldn't trust any of her fellow Business students - they were all trying to get jobs at her family's companies.

"This is it," Ruby said, and Weiss looked up as Ruby scampered to the door of the pancake house and pulled it open. Weiss shook off her introspection, nodded thanks to Ruby, and walked into the restaurant.

###

Ruby had been squealing inside ever since the bus stop, but she'd been trying hard to be cool, and not to be clingy or hyper to this beautiful, elegant lady. Every time Weiss looked at her, Ruby felt like a little kid with a stomach full of butterflies.

They ordered, Weiss insisted on paying, and sat in a cozy little booth that shut them off from the rest of the restaurant. "I'm starving," Ruby said once they got settled. "I didn't get a chance to eat more than a few crackers, between the game and work."

"You were a high school athlete," Weiss started to say, but Ruby's phone went off in her backpack, cutting off Weiss with a high-pitched trill of notes.

Ruby flushed painfully hot, fished her phone out of her pack, and checked the screen. "Sorry, I have to take this…" She slid out of the booth and accepted the call as she strode toward the door. "Hi, I'm still alive."

"Good to hear," Yang Xiao Long said as Ruby went out the front door. "You working late?"

"No, I just got out," Ruby replied. "I had a sudden date. Sorry, I should have called you."

"A date?" Yang sounded annoyed. "Ruby, why didn't you tell me? We have the system for a reason. What's her name?"

"It was last minute. She asked me while I was working," Ruby said and covered her eyes. She and Yang had a system, where they shared contact information on their dates, just in case. Ruby had forgotten the system because neither had used it for years - Yang because she had a boyfriend, Ruby because she wasn't getting dates. "Uh, Weiss Schnee. I don't have a number for her."

"Weiss. Schnee." Yang said, sounding the name out carefully. "The Mistral player?"

"Yeah, that's a good sign, right? Winners and losers don't matter, just friends and fun?"

"Uh-huh." Yang sounded dubious. "Friends are good, fun is good. But do you want a safe call in an hour?"

"Yeah," Ruby said slowly. "If it goes well, can I bring her home?"

Yang sighed. "Yeah, but not past midnight, Ned's got work in the morning."

"Thanks, sis." Ruby closed her eyes. "You're the best."

"Damn straight. Be safe, call Ned if you need a ride."

"I'm at the pancake joint on Maple," Ruby laughed. "I can walk."

"Okay. Good luck, lady-killer."

"Thanks, sis. See you later."  Ruby hung up, took a moment to compose herself, and turned back for the door.

###

Ruby came back to the booth just as a waiter set down their pancakes. "Sorry about that, my sister gets protective."

Weiss waved off the apology and applied herself to her plate. Ruby seemed lost in thought for a moment, then reached for the array of syrups on one side of the table. "You said you did sports in high school, what sport?"

"Track," Ruby said with an oddly rueful smile. "Hundred-meter sprint, both solo and relay, javelin, and mile run. I have a stack of trophies and a regional record in the hundred-meter sprint."

 _That explains a lot_ , Weiss thought. _Or maybe not…_ "Vale College has a track team. You didn't make the tryouts? For that matter, Mistral has a track team, you'd have been a shoo-in for the scholarships, our Coach Fall works for the track staff."

"I didn't try out." Ruby shrugged. "I got offered a track scholarship to Mistral. But by the time I got out of high school, track wasn't fun any more. All that mattered at my school was winning, piling up more useless shiny trophies. I won an engineering contest in my senior year; I helped design a storm drain that would capture water so it could be used for irrigation, like a community rain barrel on every block. The prize for that was a _quarter_ the size of the scholarship I got offered for just running fast." She leaned back against the plastic seat and sawed at her pancake stack. "But I'm regretting that a little bit now." She gave Weiss a shy smile.

Weiss filed the information about Ruby's track experience and scholarships in the back of her mind. Coach Fall would know how to use that to the Maidens' advantage. "How'd you get onto the handball team in particular?" She offered in trade, "My roommate Pyrrha, our team captain, recruited me."

"My sister recruited me."

"Wait…" Weiss narrowed her eyes. "There hasn't been another Rose on Vale's handball team for the last three years, who's your sister?"

Ruby giggled and took a bite of pancakes, leaving Weiss stewing in her curiosity. After a moment, Ruby said, "Yang Xiao Long is my half-sister." She glanced out the window with a slight frown, leaving Weiss bewildered at her sudden change of mood. "It's kind of a long story. And not really date material."

Weiss nodded, and changed the topic again. "Your sister's a very good player."

Ruby enthusiastically agreed, and the conversation spun off into replaying the late game, and Weiss kept up the gracious facade, even though she ground her teeth at every tactical flaw that Ruby cheerily pointed out.

Some time later, Ruby's phone chimed again, and she barely glanced at the screen before dismissing the call. "I should be getting home. Are you parked at VC?"

Weiss glanced at her own phone - somehow, three hours had disappeared without her notice. "I carpooled with my team. I'll take the bus back to Mistral from the college."

"That trip…" Ruby glanced up at the ceiling. "Be right back, I'll get a box." She slid out of the booth and scampered toward the restaurant's front counter. A moment later, she returned, and scooped the remains of her pancakes into a takeout box. "There's a train station the other way on Maple, and you can take the Green Line straight back to Mistral that way. The trains run 'til two AM, and the stations get regular police patrols."

"How do you know the way to Mistral?"

"Yang works in a bar downtown, she takes the train there and back. She's mentioned seeing lots of Mistral students taking the train." Ruby sealed the box and tucked it under one arm.

Outside the restaurant, Ruby shuffled in place, kicking at the concrete while looking through her bangs at Weiss. Then in a flash of movement and rose scent, she threw an arm around Weiss and kissed her on the cheek.

Weiss pulled away sharply, one hand darting to the tingling spot on her cheek. "Don't do that!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Ruby said, clutching the takeout box to her chest with both hands. "I just got… carried away. I like you a lot."

Weiss took a deep breath, curbing her anger and fear. "I like you too," she lied, and was surprised by how much truth was there under the lie. Ruby was frankly adorable and charming, in a hyperactive-puppy sort of way, but the risk… "But I'm in the closet still. To everyone but my team." She didn't want to give Ruby that kind of leverage over her, but someone as high-energy as the Vale player could wreak enormous damage by ignorance as much as malice. _And this naive little child doesn't have a malicious bone in her body,_ Weiss thought.

"Oh! I got it, no problem." Ruby nodded vigorously. She put her hands behind her, kicked at the concrete again, and said, "Um, my place is on the way to the train station, you want to watch a movie or something?"

The invitation was blatantly transparent, but Ruby's smile was so invitingly, temptingly sweet that it melted Weiss' resolve. Like the solid chunks of brown sugar that Weiss had used to sneak from the pantry, she knew she shouldn't, but she did anyway. "Sure."

Ruby grinned ear to ear, and took a step toward Weiss. Almost instantly, she switched to a demure smile and stepped back. "It's this way," She said, and started walking down the sidewalk. "As I said, you can take the train any time of night… or you can stay until morning."

"We'll see," Weiss said as she fell into step beside Ruby, and felt a pang of conscience at the lie.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up: this chapter is mostly explicit lesbian sex. The important parts to the plot are at the beginning and the end, but the sex has bits of characterization all through it. Enjoy.

Under orange streetlights that washed out the stars and turned the sky into a featureless indigo bowl, Ruby led Weiss through the neighborhood of densely packed houses and small apartment buildings that surrounded the College. They talked of small things, classes and weather, but Weiss seemed a little freaked, glancing from side to side like she expected gangs of muggers to jump out of the shadows at any moment. Ruby liked the neighborhood, full of kids and noise and life after the schools let out. It got quiet and peaceful after dark, with everyone in bed for the next day.

On nights when her thoughts kept her eyes open, Ruby walked the streets for hours, wandering the rivers of orange poured down by the streetlights until she'd exhausted herself enough for sleep. On such nights, seeing another human being maybe once an hour, it was easy to pretend she was the only person in the world.

 _But not tonight_ , she thought, glancing aside at Weiss' profile. She felt like her head was about to pop off and spray glitter and rainbows everywhere, so happy and smug she was to be taking home this gorgeous, elegant lady. Through the entire time at the restaurant, Weiss had listened attentively as Ruby blabbered on about whatever, never seeming bored or irritated by Ruby's chatter. _This might work out, even if she plays for Mistral,_ Ruby thought. _What a great example of love and understanding conquering all; Dr. Ozpin will be so pleased._

She turned and led Weiss down an alley to her apartment building, and threaded her way through the line of cars parked out front. As she reached the door to her apartment, she turned back, making sure Weiss hadn't gotten lost somehow.

She opened the door and stepped into warmth and light with a "Hey guys! I'm home!"

###

Weiss had been nervous walking through the dismal urban jungle, with tiny little houses sharply demarcated from their neighbors with chain-link fences, their shadowed facades looming over the narrow path of light and safety. She'd tried not to show her fear, but she'd started every time a dog barked or a car rolled past.

Ruby led her down a dark alley lined with sheet-metal fences, to a drab apartment block set well away from the right-of-way. Lights glowed golden from two of the apartments, and the blue light of a television flickered from a third. Ruby scampered between parked cars to a door next to one of the lit-up windows, and looked back at Weiss. Then she opened the door, spilling warm golden glow and TV noise into the night.

Weiss followed Ruby through the door, into a cramped living room dominated by a battered brown couch. On it, a muscular blonde reclined with her feet on a stack of pillows, watching cartoons on an older TV across the room. A young man with olive skin and bright blue hair lay with his head in her lap, and a shaggy yellow cat lay in turn on his chest. Both people waved at Ruby and Weiss, and the cat glanced at Weiss, then lay its head down and closed its eyes. "Hello, Weiss," Yang Xiao Long said from the couch, watching Weiss through narrowed eyes. "Hey, Ruby. How'd it go?"

Weiss nodded cordially, plastering a fake smile on her face. Just because Ruby was naive didn't mean Yang was too, even if she'd been a reckless muscle-bound lunk when she and Weiss had met on the court. Ruby seemed completely indifferent to her sister's hostility, and bounced up and down on her heels. "It went really well! I got leftovers, help me fit 'em in the fridge?"

Yang shifted the narrow-eyed stare to Ruby, but slid out from under the blue-haired man and led Ruby into the tiny kitchen, where they bent together over the refrigerator. The blue-haired man raised his eyebrows, but shooed the cat off him and stood, offering a hand to Weiss. "I'm Ned. Good game today?"

"Weiss. Yes, it was."

"Good." They both looked down at an insistent meowing. The cat twined around and around Weiss' feet, staring urgently up at her. "Aaaand that's Sun. Don't mind him, he's a shameless attention hog."

"He's a very nice kitty." Weiss bent and gave the cat a tentative scratch between the ears.

"All right, lemme get my boots on," Yang said, striding out of the kitchen. She gestured at Ned in a moment of wordless communication, then disappeared into the back.

"Hey, kid," Ned said to Ruby as she came out of the kitchen, "C'mon, I got something for you in my car."

"Sure!" Ruby followed Ned past Weiss and the cat. "He always spots an easy mark," Ruby cooed as she went out the door. Sun closed his eyes and headbutted Weiss' non-scratching hand, as if in agreement.

After a moment, Yang came out of the back, now wearing black motorcycle boots and pulling on a black jacket. "We need to talk, Schnee," she said, and the cat scuttled away from Weiss, his belly flat to the floor, and fled into the kitchen.

Weiss straightened, determined not to show any fear to the blonde bruiser. "Yes?"

"It's very simple. It is _her_ body, _her_ bed, _her_ rules," Yang growled, punctuating each with a rock-hard finger jabbed into Weiss's collarbone. "You break her rules, I break your bones. Got it?"

"What about my body, and my rules?" Weiss snapped back, despite Yang's intimidating presence.

"I trust my sister to be a decent human being," Yang snarled. "I don't trust _you_ as far as I can throw you. And I won't be here to chaperone her, so you remember that _I will find you._ "

Weiss bit back an indignant screech by remembering her deeper purpose. _All for victory, don't let this oaf push you around._ "I understand completely. You don't have to worry at all."

"See that I don't." Yang stepped past Weiss as Ned came back in, followed by Ruby.

Ned slipped past Weiss, into the back of the apartment, as the sisters embraced in the doorway. All of Yang's aggression and snarl were gone, replaced by surprising tenderness as she muttered something to Ruby. Ruby shook her head and grinned as Yang tweaked her nose. Weiss had to look away from the intimacy of their affection.

Then Ned and Yang were gone, leaving Weiss and Ruby alone with the cat as a car started outside. The cat jumped up on the couch and meowed imperiously.

Automatically, Weiss stepped closer and resumed scratching the cat. "Did you just clear out your sister?"

"I clear out often enough when she and Ned want some privacy. She can clear out once, it won't hurt." Ruby glanced at Weiss through her bangs, a touch of pink blooming on her cheekbones as she babbled. "We don't have to do anything, we can just watch a movie if you want, but I'd like to kiss you again, because I _totally_ have the hots for you, but you don't have to -"

Weiss looked down at the cat to conceal her own smirk. Ruby's intentions were clearly anything but chaste, but she doubted the Vale player was interested in a quick one-night stand. She considered ending the charade now that she had all the information she wanted, simply watching a movie and leaving with an empty promise to call in the morning, rather than leading Ruby on with promises of a relationship that couldn't happen.

But when she looked at Ruby, Weiss' resolve to say _no_ melted in the face of Ruby's puppy-dog eyes. She could not afford a lover, not with her family and her position, but it would be nice to pretend for a night. To open her arms to someone she could trust, not just someone she could use.

"Well…" She equivocated. "We can take it slow." She put a hand on Ruby's arm and stepped closer for a kiss. It began gentle, but Ruby wrapped her arms around Weiss' neck and pulled her close, and the kiss turned hot and hungry, sparking a flame in the bottom of her stomach. Weiss' thumb stroked carefully at Ruby's breast, and Ruby moaned and nibbled at Weiss' lip.

Weiss pulled Ruby back toward the couch, and Ruby broke the kiss with an exhilarated grin. "That was a yes, right?"

"Talk about it in the morning?" Weiss grinned, and took another small step back.

"We should talk some now…" Ruby's eyes dipped and avoided Weiss'. "I haven't done this before. And I want this to work. So if there's anything you're not comfortable with, tell me? That's totally okay, and I don't want you uncomfortable at all."

Weiss growled and gave Ruby another kiss. Why did Ruby have to _talk_ at a time like this? She broke the kiss long enough to make sure she wasn't about to sit on the cat, then pulled Ruby down to fill her lap with warm, firm, squirming girl. Ruby's fingers tangled in Weiss' hair, and her other hand slid carefully down the straps of Weiss' tanktop. After a moment, Ruby's hand grew bolder and slipped beneath the fabric of her tanktop, and it was Weiss' turn to gasp.

Weiss fumbled at the buttons of Ruby's polo shirt, feeling the hard shape of some pendant under the fabric. Her hand didn't fit through the narrow opening, so Weiss dropped her hand to Ruby's waist and slipped her fingers under Ruby's shirt. Ruby's hard stomach muscles twitched at the contact, and she kissed Weiss' cheekbone, and then her earlobe. "My room?" Ruby whispered in her ear. "It's more comfortable, and we can spread out more."

Weiss nodded, and untangled herself from Ruby enough for both of them to stand. Ruby took her hand and led her through the doorway into the back.

###

Ruby practically vibrated with excitement as she led Weiss into her narrow cubby of a room. She wished she could drop a tarp over the desk crammed with tools and parts, but Weiss didn't seem to mind. Her girlfriend - and there was a thought that sent her heart dancing! - examined the posters covering her walls as Ruby closed the door to keep out the cat.

Ruby sat on her narrow bed and touched her hip pocket. The package Ned had given her sat stiff in her khakis, reminding her of its presence every time she moved. _Not time yet_ , she thought in its direction, as Weiss turned to look at her with the kind of hungry anticipation she'd only seen when her sister was shopping for booze.

 _I just hope I'm not going to be consumed._ Ruby suppressed the twinge of anxiety in her gut at the odd comparison. _It's your first time, no need to be nervous._ Then she felt an entirely different kind of nervous as Weiss plucked out her jewelled comb, then pulled her hair out of its ponytail, letting it fall in a platinum river down her shoulders.

Weiss took the hem of her tank top and slowly pulled it up, exposing a hair's breadth of porcelain skin at a time. The entire time, her bright blue eyes smoldered sternly into Ruby's, as if to say _this is what you're going to get if you're very good, little girl,_ a combination of authority and sensuality that made Ruby's mouth water.

Weiss seemed to tire of her game and pulled her tank top all the way off, revealing a blue sports bra. She leaned over Ruby and put one knee on the bed between Ruby's thighs, and her hands grabbed the bottom of Ruby's shirt. She pulled upward, and Ruby seized a quick, hungry kiss before raising her arms and letting Weiss pull off her shirt. Weiss's eyes tracked hungrily up her chest, lingered on her breasts, then stopped, and flicked up to Ruby's with a look of scorn that Ruby, under the circumstances, found oddly compelling. "Really?" She asked.

Ruby glanced down at the white cross resting on her chest. "What? I'm not gonna shove a Bible down your throat. We can talk about it later." She unclasped the simple cord necklace and dropped it on the bedside table, then scooted back from Weiss until her back was up against her pile of pillows and stuffed animals. "But it's easy to get out of the way. C'mere, Weiss." She patted the bed next to her.

###

Weiss snorted, but lay on the bed next to Ruby. She hadn't thought Ruby would have the capacity to surprise her, but the cross had done the trick. _But it does make sense,_ she thought as she ran a hand up Ruby's stomach, admiring the play of muscles beneath the skin, and the faint line of dark hair running from Ruby's navel to disappear under her waistband. _She's exactly the sort of childish person who'll cling to a belief in God so she doesn't have to deal with reality._ Coach Fall would know how to turn that to the Maidens' advantage.

She gave up religion and psychology for more immediate matters, and rolled onto Ruby, her hair falling in a gossamer curtain around their faces. Her lips found Ruby's, and for some time they engaged in a wordless wrestling match, hands groping and straining for leverage. Weiss easily pinned Ruby with her superior position, who started giggling underneath her. "If you're going to tie me up," Ruby whispered, "Can we save that for next time?"

 _Like there's going to be a next time_ , Weiss thought derisively, but she faked a grin for Ruby's benefit, and released Ruby's hands. In a moment, she had Ruby's sports bra off and stared down at the dark nipples standing out of pale flesh, trying to look seductive and mysterious rather than inexperienced. If Ruby knew that this was Weiss' first time too, she'd probably insist on _more talking._

Weiss licked and sucked Ruby's nipples, eliciting gratifying little moans, while she tried to remember the details of porn she'd seen here or there. _Let's try…_ She ground her hips into Ruby's, and the Vale player groaned and bucked underneath her, and pulled her into a rough kiss.

Ruby's hands clawed at her back, and Weiss gasped into the other girl's mouth. Ruby's hand found the clasp of Weiss' bra, and she pulled herself up - to look over Weiss' shoulder, she realized, and Weiss bent to give Ruby easier access. After a few tries, Ruby got the clasp open, and Ruby pulled off the bra and dropped it off the side of the bed. "Now I know how boys feel," Ruby chuckled.

Weiss met the joke with a fake grin that felt unsettlingly close to true. She rolled over, pulling Ruby on top of her. Ruby kissed her, pawed at her breasts, and slid a hand down across Weiss' abs, pausing at the waistband of her shorts. "Want me to… eat you out?"

Weiss, floating in a fog of lust for this annoying eager puppy of a girl, nodded and raised her hips to let Ruby tug her shorts and panties off. This wasn't how she'd pictured her first time with a girl going. She'd dreamed of a formless faceless girl-thing serving her desires, not this warmth and sweat and awkwardness and bad jokes. Certainly not moon-bright eyes looking at her like she was some kind of shrine, a blessing beyond price, and that just made Weiss want to flee. _I can't be what you want me to be, can't you see that?_

Ruby slid down Weiss' body, leaving a trail of tingling spots where her lips had touched. She kissed up the slope of Weiss' breast, and her tongue darted out to circle the jutting nipple, sending a tingle through Weiss' chest. Weiss lay back in the pillows and closed her eyes as Ruby went lower, zig-zagging across her abdomen.

Ruby stopped, and a soft ripping noise made Weiss raise her head. Ruby crouched between her legs, holding a foil packet. A ripped cardboard box, the size of a small phone, lay on the bed next to her. "What are you doing?"

Ruby tore open the foil packet and extracted a pink sheet of elastic the size of her hand. "Using protection. It's a dental dam. Ned gave 'em to me."

Weiss blinked. "Why?"

"Seemed like a good idea." Ruby shrugged and grinned. "My mouth can get kinda dirty."

Weiss blinked in surprise - she'd never known such things existed. "Surely we don't need it. It's not like either of us are going to get pregnant."

Ruby's grin faltered, and she sat up. "We don't need it if you want to go get STD tested together. But that takes a while." She tilted her head to one side and smirked at Weiss. "Your choice - use it, or put your pants on and go back to making out. Totally up to you."

"Very well." Weiss lay back in the pillows. The cool latex against her sensitive tissues made her twitch, but she bit back a moan as Ruby massaged the dental dam into the folds of her flesh, and it warmed to her body. Weiss heard Ruby take a deep breath, and then a shock of lightning went straight up her spine as Ruby nibbled on her clit. "Oh god!" Weiss cried. _Oh, THAT'S what this feels like!_

Ruby giggled, and the vibration seemed to ripple down to Weiss' toes and up to the crown of her head. Then Ruby went to work on Weiss' vulva, drawing shapes on her lips, nibbling up and down her labia, sucking her clit through the dental dam. Weiss let herself drift on a sea of carnal pleasure, far better than when she touched herself...

"It's too bad," Ruby said, her voice slightly muffled, "you've got such pretty platinum hair down here, it looks really soft. I'd love to touch it."

"Mmmm," Weiss hummed, "Next time maybe…" _Shit, wait, there won't be..._

The lovely feelings stopped abruptly, and Weiss ground her teeth in frustration. "What? Are you okay? You want me to stop?" Ruby asked, sounding slightly panicked. Weiss lifted her head to see Ruby staring at her, concern splashed across her face.

 _Shit, did I say that out loud?_ "Nothing, keep going!" She tried not to snarl as she pushed Ruby's head back down. She was _so close_ , a warm tension growing and swirling in the pit of her stomach...

Ruby's teeth worked her clit, and the heat in Weiss' belly slammed outward, lifting her hips off the bed and tearing a cry from her throat. The heat reached her fingers and toes and rebounded back into her core, and Weiss curled up around her lungs, smothering her scream before it could break free and wake people in the next county.

The heat drained away, leaving Weiss soaked in warm sweat and trembling with the reaction. Ruby's touch was almost painful on her sensitized vulva, and Weiss pulled Ruby up into a rough hungry kiss. "Fuck, that was good," Weiss rasped, when Ruby broke the kiss to catch her breath.

"You're welcome," Ruby whispered smugly, and kissed Weiss' eyebrows. She peeled the dental dam off Weiss and dropped it in the trash. "Just trying to make you feel as good as you make me."

Weiss felt her grin freeze, and kissed Ruby's throat to hide her face. She knew it to be flattery, it _had_ to be. But it just felt so good to pretend, for a moment, that she could be worth so much to another person. To ignore all her other obligations, to her family, to Coach Fall, to the team, to pretend that this lovely girl was the only person who mattered.

She could dream all she wanted, but at the stroke of midnight, the carriage turned back into a turnip, and the family and the team and all the other obligations bound her, yoked her like a horse in a harness. _I can't be what you want me to be_ , she wanted to scream, _I'm sorry._ There would be less pain in the long run, to her, to all who depended on her, to Ruby, if Weiss just punctured Ruby's hopes and left now.

Instead she kissed Ruby's collarbone and down her biceps, took Ruby's hand and kissed its back like an old-fashioned gentleman, and was rewarded with Ruby's giggle. All she could do was take this little moment, this little slice of pretending, and do as little harm to Ruby as she could. _I'm sorry it has to be this way. You'll find someone better than me in time._ She tried to picture Ruby smiling, Ruby on the arm of some beautiful woman, Ruby lying nude and laughing in her arms. But somehow, whatever woman she pictured turned to Weiss herself. _Dammit, I said no!_ The fantasy hurt too much, so she ruthlessly smothered it.

A jaw-cracking yawn broke Weiss' fantasies and scattered them like glass from a car crash. Ruby's lips slid along her forehead. "Sleepy?"

"A bit," Weiss muttered, then shook herself. She could not afford to stay here until morning, and face all the arguments and weeping and demands for explanation that would follow an honest confession. I need her to sleep… let's see if this works…

"Bet I can make you feel as nice first…" she growled and pushed Ruby onto her back.

Ruby grinned and snuggled back into the pillows, and Weiss slid a hand down Ruby's stomach, running fingers along the trail of dark soft hairs to touch Ruby's waistband. After a glance at Ruby's face for permission, she slid her fingers a little further and undid the button of Ruby's khaki pants. Ruby grinned and pushed her khakis off the edge of the bed, revealing white briefs covered with dancing sunflowers. Weiss' hand dipped further, between Ruby's hipbones, and Ruby's fingers closed around her wrist. "What exactly are you planning on doing?"

"Making you happy? With my fingers?"

"There's protection for that too." Ruby released Weiss' hand and writhed off the bed. She bent to rummage in the desk drawers - Weiss slid to the edge of the bed to admire the view - and stood up with a blue cardboard box in one hand, which she set on the bed next to Weiss' knee.

"Latex gloves?" Weiss peered at the box, then up at Ruby. "Should I be worried that you have these ready?"

Ruby shrugged. Her breasts wobbled slightly out of time with the rest of her, a lovely effect distracting to the eye. "I work with chemicals sometimes, and some of 'em you don't want on your skin." She leaned over Weiss. "But they come in handy for other things too. Like this."

Weiss pulled a glove from the box and let it flop over her fingers. She looked up at Ruby. "Really?"

Ruby's face fell, then recovered a little smile. "You don't have to, if you don't want to. We can go back to cuddling. I just… I just want to do things right." Her hand went to her hipbone and tugged her briefs down an inch, and Weiss' attention was fairly riveted.

Despite her uncertainty, Weiss felt her mouth quirk up in a smile. "You're lucky you're cute. Get over here." She pulled a glove onto her left hand and patted the bed.

Ruby grinned, dropped onto the bed, and pulled Weiss close for a gentle kiss. She wiggled enchantingly, and when they parted Ruby's briefs were gone, revealing a neatly trimmed thatch of dark hair between her legs. "Sorry," Ruby said apologetically, "I didn't think I'd be getting laid tonight."

"It's fine." Weiss maneuvered around behind Ruby and sent her gloved fingertips crawling down Ruby's belly. Ruby tilted her head back, and her hair brushed Weiss' shoulder. Weiss' fingertips combed through Ruby's pubic hair, and she marveled at the wiry texture even through the glove.

She could tell when her fingers found their goal by Ruby's sharp gasp. Her fingers ran along Ruby's outer lips, and Ruby bucked and moaned, "Oh god damn oh fuck _oh shit_ …" Weiss couldn't help but chuckle at the torrent of profanity coming out of Ruby's mouth. She bent her fingers, searching for -

 _There._ Her fingertips pressed and fondled the little nub of flesh, and Ruby's moan died to a faint wordless, breathless keening. She leaned back against Weiss' chest, her hands clutching and clawing at Weiss' thighs.

Weiss slid her fingertips up and down Ruby's lips, then slipped one inside, and Ruby's back arched, thrusting her breasts upwards and riveting Weiss' attention. Weiss moved her finger, and then a second, in and out of Ruby's wet slit. Ruby started whimpering and biting at Weiss' ear. Weiss grinned, bent her fingers and fucked Ruby harder.

Ruby went entirely rigid in Weiss' arms, her breath ragged and panting. Her back arched outward, and her hands clutched at Weiss' hair and shoulders. She gave a long, high-pitched keen, and went limp in Weiss' arms.

Weiss pulled her fingers free and glanced down at Ruby in alarm, and Ruby swivelled and pulled Weiss' face down to her for a kiss. Her mouth was hot and wet and insistent. Ruby wiggled around until they were face to face, and Weiss found herself tilted back into the pillows, Ruby breathing pleasant fire into her throat the whole way.

Weiss wiggled into a more comfortable position, and a dry _blat_ sound rose between them as air was forced out from between their breasts. Ruby broke down giggling, burying her face into Weiss' shoulder, while Weiss stared at the ceiling in bewilderment. "What… just… happened?"

"Boob fart!" Ruby touched her lips to Weiss' neck, then chortled into her shoulder. "Like… like an armpit fart."

"Are you _twelve_? Did I commit a felony somewhere?" Weiss tried to summon a glare, though the effect was spoiled by the stubborn smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

Ruby slid down beside Weiss and rested her cheek on Weiss' shoulder. "Nope," she chirped. "I try to take joy wherever I can find it."

"That sounds very wise," Weiss said, but inside she shook her head at Ruby's naivete. Joy did not build stores, joy did not serve customers, joy was what was taken when the work of the day was done.

"I try…" Ruby yawned into Weiss' shoulder. "You sleepy? Cuz I'm…" She yawned into Weiss' neck. "I'm all tired out."

Ruby turned off the light and fumbled at the messy sheets. Weiss, remembering her plans, passed over Ruby to pull her panties from the pile of clothing on the floor, then slid under the covers beside Ruby.

Ruby put her arms around Weiss and cuddled up to her, a length of warm sweet-smelling softness with firm muscle and bone beneath. She was damnably comfortable "See you in the morning," she breathed in Weiss' ear. "I love you."

Weiss concealed her wince by rolling around to put her back to Ruby. "Love you too," she whispered, and lifted Ruby's hand from her stomach to her lips. The lie felt uncomfortably close to true. _Just the hormones and endorphins making you stupid_ , she told herself. She could not afford to love a rival, another woman, not if she wanted victory. She could not afford to be soft or kind to the enemy; that way lay defeat and disaster, in both sports and business. Too many people depended on Weiss for her to indulge herself.

She fought off sleep by silently reciting poems, commercial jingles, and pop songs until Ruby's soft breaths turned to snores. Weiss closed her eyes in anguish. _Even her snores are strangely appealing. I have to get out of here before I go completely soft in the head._

She waited some more, to let Ruby sink a little deeper into sleep, then extracted herself from Ruby's arms. "Yookay?" Ruby muttered as Weiss stirred.

"Bathroom, be right back," Weiss whispered, and kissed Ruby's exposed forehead. Ruby hummed tunelessly and burrowed into her nest of pillows. Once Weiss was off the bed, she dressed carefully and silently, then walked to the door, carrying her shoes. She laid a hand on the doorknob and looked back at Ruby, outlined in the orange light from outside the window, sleeping the sleep of the free. Weiss stared, drinking in the vision like a child at a toy store window, at the luxury she could not afford. _And I thought I could afford anything I could want._

 _Enough of sentiment_ , she told herself firmly, and silently opened the door. Her gym bag lay next to the sofa, and she slung it over her shoulder.

For a moment, she wanted to drop everything and climb back into the warm bed, into gentle arms, where she could be only Weiss, not the heiress to her father's companies. Only a lover, for however long it lasted.

She shook her head, dropped her shoes, and slid her feet into them. And when the sun rose, she and Ruby would be enemies again. As long as she played for Vale, Ruby could only ever be a rival, unless Weiss gave up handball, the one place she had where she could be just Weiss. And with the Pacific tournament just around the corner, and the national championships just beyond, her honor recoiled from giving up on her commitment to Coach Fall for anything, let alone an infatuation that might not last more than a few weeks.

And all that was impossible to explain to Ruby. _She'll find someone better than me anyway._

Weiss plucked her compact pepper spray from her gym bag and stepped out into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I'm writing Ruby as a Christian. No, this femslash is not intended as any kind of religious tract or proselytization. In fact, I'm not religious myself - I was just interested in the idea of making a sympathetic character religious, and it does work for the way I write Ruby.  
> More importantly, I would be seriously remiss as an erotica author if I didn't include links to safe sex information. Yes, women can spread STIs to other women, and safe sex practices should be used. Get tested, know your status, and communicate honestly and frankly.  
> Some links, obviously NSFW:  
> http://www.erikamoen.com/comics-portfolio/girlfuck/ an introduction to lesbian sex by Erika Moen, includes safe sex information starting around page 14.  
> http://teenhealthsource.com/sex/dental-dams/ This page is exclusively about dental dams, but goes into much more detail.  
> There will be more, when I write it. I'm starting school next week, and might not have much time to write, so subscribe to get notified of future updates!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight trigger warning for self-slut-shaming and a bit of misogynistic language.

Ruby woke warm and smiling, and her smile stretched to aching when she remembered the previous night. She wiggled and slid her fingers toward Weiss, but her fingers went off the edge of the bed without touching cool soft skin.

Ruby's eyes snapped open and she sat up straight. Sunlight streamed in through her open blinds, splashing in skewed lines on the wall above her bed. In another hour or so, it would crawl down into her pillows and wake her, if this were any other morning.

 _But this isn't another morning? Is it?_ Ruby scrambled out of her bed, fighting the entrapping covers, and landed atop her discarded clothing of the previous night. Nothing of Weiss' lay in the pile, only her own clothes. A glance in her trash can revealed the dental dam and glove from last night. _It wasn't a dream, so where is she?_ A suspicion whispered in the bottom of her mind, but she drove it down.

"Weiss?" she called out, as she yanked on her work clothes. Listening closely in the silence, she heard people moving in the apartment's main room. She rushed to her bedroom door and yanked it open, but there was no Weiss in the main room, just Neptune sitting at the table with a half-eaten bowl of oatmeal and a mug of tea. Yang puttered around the kitchen, making something, and glanced back at Ruby. "Have you guys seen Weiss?" Ruby asked.

Yang shook her head, her eyes wide, and Ned glanced down the hall toward the open bathroom door and the empty shadows beyond. "Come to think of it," he said, "the door wasn't locked when we got home. I figured you guys were too busy to lock it."

"No I locked it after you left." Ruby said, then winced. Her knuckles tapped a nervous tattoo on her doorframe. "She must've left before you came back."

"People do that, sometimes." Yang, her face closed and still, joined Ned at the table with her own oatmeal, and smiled encouragingly at Ruby. "Did you get her number?"

Ruby's hand stopped its nervous tapped. "I… um, no." Ruby's face flamed bright, and she spun away from their eyes, back into her room, to frantically search her clothes, her bedside table, her desk and finally the floor for a note, a number, some word of hope. During her search, she heard Ned open and close the door, on his way to work.

Ruby sat back amid her clothes and rubbed hot painful tears out of her eyes. _The dust under the bed_ , she told herself, but the lie fell flat even inside her skull.

"Find anything?" Yang said from the door. Ruby took a deep breath and shook her head, not trusting her voice. "Come on out and I'll feed you."

Ruby picked up the unused gloves and dental dams and put them in a desk drawer. "I'm not hungry."

"You never are, when you're upset. You still need to eat, don't make me make you." Yang's tone held no mercy.

Ruby groaned, pushed herself upright, and followed Yang out to the table. Yang strode into the kitchen and put a plate of scrambled eggs down in front of Ruby, followed by a fork. "Eat that."

Ruby dutifully took a bite, then found her appetite and picked up her pace. "Why would she _do_ that?"

"Because she's a useless lesbian?" Yang sat opposite Ruby and dug into her oatmeal. "Ruby, Weiss - that whole Mistral crowd - takes competition _seriously_. They won't even have a post-match drink with rival players."

"Maybe she had a good reason to leave." Ruby said after she finished her eggs. "She is in the closet, after all. Maybe she didn't want to get caught."

"Mm," Yang said. "Did you talk to her about a relationship before you got her clothes off?"

Even though she was used to her sister's frankness around sex, Ruby squirmed in her chair. "Not really. I figured we'd have time… later." She shrugged, and felt her face grow hot. "Then I fell asleep."

Yang muttered something in Mandarin and stood. She took Ruby's cleared plate and strode to the kitchen. "Want me to walk you to church?"

Ruby thought about the church, the light and the gardens and the music, all the bright smiles and cheerfulness, and quailed at the thought of explaining the turmoil in her heart to the little old ladies in the pews. They'd have no ill word to say to her, but Ruby could feel the whole story boiling with shame in her throat, pressing at her back teeth, scratching and clawing and demanding to be poured out. She could taste the sympathy already, shining a light on all her faults and flaws… "No thanks," she said, willing her voice to stay level. "I think I'll skip it today. Sleep in."

"Okay," Yang said. "Let me know if you need anything."

Ruby nodded, turned away, and retreated to her room. Despite her earlier search, she scanned the room as she closed the door, searching for some note, some word from Weiss to explain the inexplicable. She spotted a white glitter on her bedside table and drew closer, only to see her cross lying on the dark wood, in a bed of its cord. Ruby remembered Weiss' scorn at seeing her cross, and how that scorn had excited her amid hungry lips and warm soft skin.

 _Slut_ , something whispered at the back of her mind, dripping venom. _Look how eager you were to go to bed with her, even though you knew nothing about her. You thought you were good enough for her, but you just got used. Nobody to blame but yourself_. Looking back over dinner conversation, she spotted half a dozen times Weiss had evaded or put off questions. Things she'd overlooked in the moment stood out stark and clear as smoke signals in the cold lens of hindsight.

To shut the voices up, Ruby dumped her pillows and stuffed animals on the floor, then set to work stripping her sheets.

###

Weiss rose out of fitful sleep, and realized with some irritation that she'd fallen into her hard, narrow bed wearing her denim shorts from the previous night. She skinned out of her shorts into sweatpants covered with tessellating snowflakes. Her irritation rose as she noticed that her tanktop still smelled like Ruby's rose shampoo, and she yanked it off, fired it into her laundry, and pulled on a clean one. The urge to dig the tanktop out of her laundry, and drown herself in that rose scent, she smothered with a vengeance. She did _not_ need to be dragged around by her libido.

She padded out into the common room of her suite, and found her roommate and captain Pyrrha Nikos doing push-ups on the floor. "Thanks for - stomping - in last - night," she hissed between reps. Sweat glistened on the ropy scars crisscrossing her shoulders.

"You're welcome," Weiss nodded. She'd been careful to make conspicuous noise coming in despite the late hour, to avoid triggering Pyrrha's reflexes from her years in the Marine Corps.

Pyrrha finished her set and sat up on her knees, wiping at her face with a towel. "Are you okay? You seemed to take losing hard."

"Yeah." Weiss nodded. It seemed an eternity had passed since the game at Vale College. Weiss' face heated slightly, remembering all all the details of what had happened.

Pyrrha would not approve of her ploy with Ruby, Weiss was sure. So she had to edit around, tell Pyrrha only what she needed to know, and leave the full information for Coach Fall. "I walked around the Vale campus for a while. I wanted to clear my head. And then… I ran into a girl who worked for their athletic department. We got to talking, and she lived near Vale, so…" Weiss shrugged again, and smiled ruefully. "So I kinda had a one-night stand."

"Congratulations." Pyrrha's eyebrows went up with her smile, then down as her eyes narrowed. "You did use protection, right?"

"Of course! I'm not _stupid_." Weiss tapped her toe in irritation. "You're straight as a spear, how did you know about such things?"

"The Corps had _very_ explicit lectures. Detailed. With many pictures. Besides, a lot if it applies no matter who you're screwing." Pyrrha stood and clapped Weiss on the shoulder. "Well, good for you. Is this going to be a regular thing?"

Weiss shook her head and lied. "She's in the closet, I'm in the closet, we figured it's better to leave it as a one-nighter."

Pyrrha shook her head. "Your life. But I'm glad you had a good night."

"Thanks." Weiss dismissed the topic with a wave of her hand. "What's your plan for today?"

Pyrrha jerked a thumb toward the door. "Breakfast, gym, laundry. Want to join me?"

Weiss smiled. "Sounds like a plan. Let me pack my gym bag."

###

Ruby changed her sheets, made her bed, sorted her laundry for the next laundry day, and wandered into the bathroom before her energy gave out. She sat on the tile floor with her back to the shower, staring at the off-white cabinets for a long time, with _stupid stupid stupid_ pounding through her skull in time with her heartbeat, before Yang found her.

"Rubes? What are you doing?" Yang asked from the doorway.

Ruby scrubbed water from her eyes and looked up at her sister. "I wanted to dye my bangs red, but I don't know how."

Yang put her hand on Ruby's shoulder, and Ruby leaned into her sister's strong hand. "Want me to do it? Ned's got some red in there somewhere, from last Halloween."

Ruby nodded, and got out of Yang's way as her sister rummaged in the cabinets for Ned's dying equipment. Yang pulled her mass of blonde hair back and secured it with a hair tie.

As they mixed the bleach and dye, Ruby reflected that this was exactly the wrong task if she wanted distraction from her thoughts. Her role was mostly passive, sitting and waiting for things to happen, which left far too much time to think the thoughts she didn't want to think.

"You've got that hangdog look again," Yang observed as she wrapped Ruby's bangs in dye and tinfoil. "What are you thinking?"

"I was pretty stupid, wasn't I?" Ruby rubbed at her eyes. "I didn't think a girl would do that kind of thing."

"I wish you'd told me you were thinking that," Yang said as she stepped back and set a timer on her phone. "You would be amazed, the kind of stories I hear at work. Ladies can inflict as much damage as guys can, with or without planning to."

"I wasn't thinking that, in so many words. It was just a thing here," Ruby tapped the back of her head. "Not in words, just an assumption." She buried her face in her knees. "I feel so _stupid_."

Yang sighed. Ruby sniffled and pressed her eyes into her knees, hating herself for being such a drama queen and being a burden on her sister and for being so dumb and and and _and_...

Strong arms wrapped her in warm walls, and hands strong as iron gently pressed her face into Yang's muscular shoulders. "Listen to me," Yang said in the voice of her childhood, the voice that had carried her into sleep on thousands of nights. "Leaving like that was _her_ decision, not yours. It was something she chose to do, not anything you caused, you got that?"

Ruby nodded spasmodically, then a dam broke in her chest and the tears began to flow in earnest. She clutched at Yang's tank top like an infant and sobbed, and her sister stroked her hair and crooned in her ear as she bawled out her broken heart.

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."  
> -Olympic Creed
> 
> Citius. Altus. Fortus.  
> (Faster. Higher. Stronger.)  
> -Olympic Motto
> 
> Blame tumblr user errantmoggy. The scene at the end is all her fault.

As Weiss navigated the labyrinthine corridors twisting between the gymnasiums, classrooms, and offices that made up Mistral University's Athletics Department, the simple spiral-bound notebook in her hand felt like it was made of lead, not paper and card.

The corridors were nearly deserted, with everyone in classes or sleeping in on a Monday morning. She went up a claustrophobic stairwell and turned into a hallway lined with faculty offices, and paused at an open door before knocking at the frame. "Come in," a voice said from inside.

Weiss took a deep breath and plunged into Coach Fall's office. Narrow and cramped, the off-white paint was almost totally obscured by pictures of Coach Fall's students, victory plaques, and Cindy Fall as a younger woman, playing handball in the Barcelona Olympics. Under the motto _Citius, Altus, Fortus_ , Coach Fall sat alone at a desk piled with papers and books. She looked up at Weiss' entry, and her scowl shifted to a sunny smile. "Weiss! You wanted to see me?"

"Yes, if it's not too much trouble. I don't want to waste your time…" Weiss eyed the stacks of paper on her Coach's desk.

Fall waved at the chair jammed against the corner of her desk. "Please, sit. You never waste my time."

Weiss closed the office door and sat. Her rehearsed explanations stuck in her throat. Fall's eyes went to the door, then to Weiss. "Are you okay, Weiss? You seemed to take our defeat on Saturday very hard."

"I'm… not sure." Weiss held the notebook in her lap, and stared down at the floor. "After the game, I ran into Ruby Rose… and long story short, I slept with her that night."

Fall sat up straight. "That's… very serious, Weiss. Especially with the Pacific tournament starting next weekend, I was counting on your focus on victory. It's been a real asset this season."

"It's not like that. I noticed that she was attracted to me, and used that to get close to her," Weiss protested hastily. "It was just a one-night stand. But as I hoped, she ended up talking a lot about handball, and her teammates, and I wrote it down afterward."

Weiss laid the notebook on the nearest corner of Fall's desk. "Here's everything she talked about, all about Vale's tactics and players that I was wondering whether this would be some kind of breach of AHL rules? I looked up the rules, but they're really vague about off-the-court behavior."

"Well. That's very different." Fall took the notebook and opened it. Weiss was suddenly acutely conscious that she'd written the notebook while sleep-deprived, and the notes were in no particular order, but arranged in a stream of consciousness. "The Rose girl was aware that you played for Mistral?"

"Of course," Weiss nodded. "She didn't seem to mind that at all. Kept talking about how the point of sports was fun, not winning."

"Easy for a victor to say," Fall said, and stopped at one page in particular. "She's religious?"

"Yes, ma'am. I didn't get details, but she didn't seem to be a very dogmatic Christian."

"A hypocrite, then. Interesting."

Weiss started to contest Fall's assumption, but decided not to override her mentor. "So was this against some rules? Or unethical in some way?"

"Since she knew you were a competitor, it's not against the rules if you remember and use what she told you. But I would appreciate it if you could keep this between us." Fall closed the notebook, set it on her desk, and drummed her finger on the card cover. "This is quite an asset you've delivered. You have an admirable dedication to victory. Often the battle is won by intelligence before it even begins, and this will help us through the tournament."

Weiss grinned, overjoyed to have pleased her mentor. "Thank you, Coach. That means a lot to me."

"It's not every person who can do something like this," Fall said, and leaned toward Weiss. "You're graduating soon. What are your plans after college?"

Weiss shrugged. "Go back to Omaha. Start working in my father's companies. I'm supposed to learn all the businesses inside and out. Meet managers, know how the companies work." The prospect did not fill her with joy. To step into a life of responsibility, constantly worrying about the thousands of lives and jobs depending on her, with every decision constrained by the straitjacket of public opinion… it felt more like being swallowed by Schnee Enterprises, an unfeeling monster that she would one day own. _Shut it, Weiss_ , she admonished herself. _Do you realize how many people would kill to have your position and privilege?_

"Well, I still have some connections to the Olympic Handball team, and they're trying to put together a winning team for the next summer games. That's after you graduate, but the tryouts will be next summer." Cinder leaned forward with a sharp-edged smile. "I think you've got the attitude that they're looking for. I can put in a good word for you, but a national championship would go a great deal toward getting you invited to try out."

Weiss gaped at her coach with impossible vistas spinning through her head. Making the _Olympic_ team would be an achievement all her own, not anything handed to her by her family, and her father would be helpless to prevent it. As much as her father derided the Olympics as a cynical business opportunity for its sponsors, he had to know that any interference with Weiss' Olympic ambitions, if she were invited, would ignite a public relations firestorm in his face. He'd _have_ to stand by and applaud her success, whatever he said in private. And his private condemnation would be nothing next to actually _being there_. And if she actually won a medal...

She shook off the intoxicating daydream. "Of course, ma'am. I'll deliver you a championship."

"I have no doubt of that," Coach Fall smiled at her. "Would you be willing to repeat your intelligence coup here?" She tapped the cover of Weiss' notebook. "As attractive as you are… there's no shortage of girls on other teams who'd be willing to spill their secrets to you."

The bottom dropped out of Weiss' stomach. She was still trying to sort out her own conflicting feelings about Ruby, and the thought of seducing other girls for similar information made her queasy.

She tried to drive down the quisling feelings before they could reveal her hidden weaknesses to her mentor. But her treacherous stomach remained a pit of acid revulsion. Weiss summoned a dispassionate mask and reached for an excuse. "I… would rather not. While I'm in the closet, it's very risky for me to pursue anyone. I judged Ruby to be very unlikely to out me; other girls may not have the same scruples."

"That's a very good point. I'll ask you not to tell your teammates, not even Miss Nikos, about my offer. Not all of them have the right hunger for victory, and there's no use creating… jealousy." To Weiss' concealed relief, Fall dropped the notebook, along with the subject, into her desk drawer. "Thank you for bringing this to me. If that's all?"

"Yes, ma'am." Weiss stood and walked out of Coach Fall's office with a spring in her step. Her heart burned with determination to win, for Coach Fall, for her team, for herself.

In the hallway outside, she found Pyrrha pacing back and forth in front of Fall's door. "You need to see the coach?"

"Weiss!" Pyrrha glanced into Coach Fall's office and held up a file folder. "Just routine paperwork. You want to go for a jog before practice?"

Weiss nodded and bounced on her toes while Pyrrha ducked into Fall's office. After a minute, Pyrrha returned. "I'm glad to see you happy," Pyrrha said as they descended to the first floor. "You should have... company... more often, if it's going to improve your mood this much."

"Why does my mood have to be related to my sex life?" Weiss asked with a stab of irritation.

They exited the complex into the hazy sunshine of midmorning, with the sun punching intermittent holes in the steel-gray clouds that choked the sky. Pyrrha set a relaxed pace around the perimeter of the athletics complex. "Sorry," she said as they jogged, "I was really worried for you after the Vale game. You seem to take defeat a lot harder than is really healthy."

"We lost," Weiss replied, not even breathing hard yet. "All our effort for nothing."

"It's not for nothing if you have fun while losing. I admire the hell out of Vale's team for that - they always seemed to be having fun whether they won or lost."

"Funny, I didn't think a Marine would admire an enemy," Weiss jibed. "What's that motto on your wall? 'Ready For All, Yielding To None?'"

Her captain slowed to a stop, and Weiss stopped and turned around. Pyrrha stared off to one side, arms crossed over her ribs and her jaw set. "When I went to war," she said through clenched teeth, "I knew I'd be fighting enemies who wanted to murder Americans and our allies. The other teams aren't _enemies_ , they're _opponents_ \- if we lose, if they win, _nobody dies_. Nobody has to flee for their lives, nobody gets fucking genocided."

Weiss backed up a step from the fire in Pyrrha's eyes. "I'm sorry. I was way out of line."

Pyrrha nodded and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry too. I didn't know I had that trigger. I was unreasonable."

Weiss nodded, feeling a surge of pity for Pyrrha. She wondered what in the war had made Pyrrha so afraid of failure that she would put 'fun' over victory and achievement. She had a sudden flash of insight - _this_ was why Coach Fall had asked her not to tell the others about her Olympic offer. Pyrrha did not have the attitude for victory. Weiss stepped close to Pyrrha and put a hand on her captain's shoulder. _Don't worry, Pyrrha_ , she promised silently. _I'll supply enough motivation for both of us._

Pyrrha smiled down at her, then looked away up the path. Her shoulder tensed under Weiss' hand. Weiss followed her captain's gaze to see Yang Xiao Long, wearing a Vale College tanktop and shorts, walking down the concrete path toward them. Her pale eyes, almost violet in the cloudy sunlight, and her fists were clenched at her sides.

"Captain Nikos," she grated, and a bolt of cold lightning went down Weiss' spine at her expression. She was suddenly, mortally aware that Yang could destroy her with a word in the right ear. "May I have a private _word_ with your teammate?"

"About what?" Pyrrha asked, moving to put her body between Weiss and Yang's anger.

"About my rules. About a deal between us," Yang grated.

"I didn't break your rules!" Weiss snapped, then shut her mouth before more of her fear could break out in useless defenses. She needed to break Yang's self-righteous certainty, undermine the rage that drove her forward. "Does your sister know you're here?"

Yang's eyes flashed sideways, and her mouth opened and closed. Weiss suppressed her smile, schooled her mouth into a hard line, and took a step toward Yang. "Are you sure you want to be yelling at me? Do you really want all of Mistral to know how _easy_ she is?"

Yang jerked back as if she'd been slapped. "You little shit-" Her hand came up, and Weiss controlled her flinch. _Don't let her see you're afraid of her, let her strike the first blow, and she puts herself in the wrong for all to see._

Pyrrha was suddenly there, holding Yang's wrist, staring down her fellow captain. "That's enough."

Yang pulled her hand free and stepped back away from Weiss. "She doesn't deserve your loyalty, Nikos."

Pyrrha shrugged. " _Semper Fidelis_."

Yang's eyes searched up and down Pyrrha, carefully measuring… what? Her expression softened and she nodded warily. Then she glared at Weiss. "You stay away from my sister."

"Fine." Weiss shrugged. "You stay away from me."

"Fine." Yang turned and stomped away toward the parking structure.

"You okay?" Pyrrha asked.

"I'm fine," Weiss shrugged and turned away. "Let's go."

"Wait a minute," Pyrrha said, "you slept with Ruby Rose?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Weiss said over her shoulder as she broke into a jog, leaving Pyrrha behind. "See you in practice!"

###

When Weiss's jog ended at the small gymnasium that served as the handball team's practice space, Most of the team had come, but neither Coach Fall or Pyrrha had arrived yet. Weiss concealed her relief. She didn't need to deal with Pyrrha's badgering.

"Oh Weiss, thank _God_ you're here!" Emily Sustrai cried as Weiss came in. She pointed at Julia Beria, who was juggling a handball and grinning like a demented squirrel. "Make her stop singing!" The Malachite twins, Melanie and Miltia, and Nea Politos nodded in agreement as they went through a routine of stretches.

"Awww Em, just watch one movie, you'll like it!" Julia threw the handball up into the air and caught it with her other hand. She tucked the handball under one arm, struck a heroic pose, and sang, " _What is mobile number, what is your smile number_?"

"Oh God, not that again!" Nea dropped her foot and put her hands over her ears.

"Just ignore her," Weiss said over Julia's singing.

Pyrrha walked in, and Julia stopped. "Think fast!" she called, and hurled the ball at her captain.

Pyrrha caught the ball one-handed, bounced it upward, and caught it with her other hand. "Thank you. Coach'll be a bit delayed, but we can warm up. Let's get down to business."

"To defeat the Huns!" Julia sang. Weiss winced - Julia was to "tune" as a bull in heat was to "decorum."

Pyrrha laughed gaily and threw the ball at Julia's head. The Maidens goalie caught it deftly. The captain went on. "Passing drill!" As the team spread out, and Julia threw the ball to Weiss, Pyrrha sang in rather better tune, "Did they send me daughters, when I asked for sons?"

"No, no, no no!" Weiss shrieked in outrage, and threw the ball to Melanie. To Weiss' horror, Pyrrha joining in only encouraged Julia to _sing louder_. The Malachite twins added their voices on the next line, and Weiss _had_ to sing along to drown out the others.

Pyrrha grabbed another ball from the corner of the room and threw it to Weiss, who bounced it one-handed to Nea. The rest of the team sang along, and Weiss found herself grinning while the balls bounced back and forth between the Maidens like some demented musical pinball machine. Girls who weren't being passed to kept time by clapping along, and Weiss found herself struggling to stay upright through her laughter while Julia did all the asides in terrible Scottish accents.

Coach Fall stormed into the gym halfway through the second repeat of the chorus, her running shoes ringing on the hardwood floor. At the thunderous expression on her face, Weiss stopped singing midword and took a step back.

" _What is going on here_?" Cindy Fall shouted, and the singing died to shocked silence. "I could hear you from _my office_. Half the _department_ came down to find out what the noise was!" She wheeled on Julia. "Miss Beria, I expect _you're_ behind this -"

"It was my fault, Coach," Pyrrha said, not flinching when Fall's glare turned on her. "It was a team-building exercise that got out of hand. We used shared vocalization to good effect in the Corps to build mutual trust and unit cohesion. I'll take responsibility and apologize to the whole Department."

Coach Fall brushed back her raven hair. "See that you do, Miss Nikos. Now, gather round. The AHL has released the league schedule…"

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song "Make A Man Out Of You" is copyright Disney.  
> The song "What Is Mobile Number" is from the Indian movie "Haseena Maan Jaayegi," and I'm not sure who owns the rights to the song. I urge you not to look it up unless you want it stuck in your head.  
> "Ready For All, Yielding To None" is the motto of the 2nd Battalion 7th Marines.  
> "Semper Fidelis" is the motto of the US Marine Corps, and translates to "Always Loyal."


	6. Chapter 6

The creak of the door opening echoed through the locker room, followed by the slap of Ruby's shoes on concrete as she ran down the aisle between banks of lockers. This cavernous locker room, a shared accommodation between several womens' sports teams at Vale College, fortunately wasn't the same one where she and Weiss had met and kissed a week before.

"Where've you been?" Yang asked as Ruby rounded a corner and dove for her locker. Making her hands, shaking with adrenaline and endorphins, unlock her locker took more time than her sprint through the locker room.

Ruby shoved her bag into her locker, yanked off her top, and unbuttoned her jeans. "Sorry, a trig study group ran way over."

Yang's reply was lost as Nora Valkyrie, with her usual complete disregard for boundaries or taste, leaned over to her and asked, "So who was the chick who dumped you? We'll break her legs!"

Ruby pulled her handball shoes out of her bag and tossed a glare at Yang. "Sorry," her half-sister said. "It just kinda slipped out."

Ruby rolled her eyes. Nora grabbed the door of Ruby's locker. "Who was it? We'll kick the crap out of her. She doesn't get to treat you bad just 'cause she goes to Mistral."

"Jenny," Ruby lied quickly. "I don't know her last name, she's a Mistral student." She shrugged and spun the tale further before Yang could intervene. "She was at the game, and we got to talking while I was working, and…" Ruby slammed the locker closed, and leaned her head against the cool metal. Her eyes itched, and she squeezed them tightly closed. She wished Yang had kept her big mouth shut for once. She didn't need the team pitying her for her stupid-ass mistake.

A big firm hand settled on her shoulder, and Ruby looked to see Blake Belladonna standing right behind her, and the rest of the team gathered around. "Are you okay?" Blake asked, concern in her amber eyes.

"Yeah," Ruby muttered around the lump in her throat. "Just… feeling pretty stupid, 'sall."

"You're not stupid," Blake said. "Easy to get manipulated by someone you like. There's no shame in it. Accept it as a lesson and move on. And remember we're here for you."

"Thanks." Ruby nodded and embraced Blake. The team moved in to surround them, pressing Ruby into Blake's arms, bathing her in the warmth of their support. Hidden in the middle, her face pressed into Blake's shoulder, Ruby closed her eyes and basked in the love and sisterhood from her team.

"We can just break one leg," Nora put in, and the entire group hug rumbled with soft laughter.

"No, Nora," Blake purred next to Ruby's ear. She shifted, and the embrace loosened into a circle bound by entwined arms and shoulders. Blake hugged Ruby into her side. "You feeling better?"

"A bit." Ruby looked around the circle, at her sister and her team. "I l-love you guys." A twinge of anguish spilled through her heart at the word "love," but she suppressed it as the rest of the team nodded.

Across the circle from Ruby, Yang grinned. "You okay, sis?"

Ruby nodded. It was time to put behind her nagging doubts and self-centered whining, and give her best to the team, the way they had her back. She disentangled herself from Blake and Nora's arms and stepped back, breaking the circle. "Yeah, I'm fine. Let's kick Mistral's ass in the tournament."

"That's my sister." Yang stepped across the circle and ruffled Ruby's hair. "If we can't touch the bitch who broke your heart, we can get revenge by kicking Mistral's ass. Let's get moving." She turned and walked out of the locker room, and the team followed in her wake. Ruby made sure her locker was sealed, and followed her team.

On the way out of the locker room, Ruby tried to picture Weiss defeated, crying over the tournament she'd hoped to win. She felt a little sorry for Weiss at the thought, as the heiress didn't seem to have much else in her life. On their date, all they'd talked about was -

"Ohshit," Ruby said aloud.

Velvet stopped and looked at her. "Y'okay, Rubes?"

 _Handball_ , almost all they'd talked about was handball, and the Vixens, and their tactics! Ruby wanted to slap herself. She'd handed Weiss the Vixens' playbook on a platter. _You're so easy, Ruby, just let your tongue hang out for a girl with a pretty face. Give her anything she wants as long as she pretends to like you. Fucking idiot!_

She shook herself and saw Velvet staring at her. The team _couldn't_ know what she suspected, not until she knew whether it was anything more than bad suppositions. If she said what she suspected, she'd have to admit that she lied about "Jenny," tell them about Weiss, and appear even stupider in their eyes.

"Nothing," she said, and walked fast to catch up with the team. "Just remembered a homework thing I have to do after practice."

Velvet nodded and fell into step beside her. "Yeah, I know that feeling. Welcome to college, here's your homework." She made a pushing motion as if dumping a wheelbarrow on Ruby, and Ruby had to chuckle.

###

Ruby and Velvet walked into the outdoor basketball court assigned to the handball team for its practice sessions. Coach Oobleck had already set up the plastic goal at one end of the court, and waited on the bench by courtside, a handball resting between his feet. "Thanks for coming, ladies." He pulled a sheaf of quarter-page fliers off his clipboard, and handed them to Yang. "The AHL released the tournament schedule and format. The Pacific Division championship is a round-robin format, so each team plays one game against every other team. Points are added up at the end, and the winner goes on to the National Championship in Las Vegas in March."

"What if there's a tie?" Ruby asked.

"There's time allotted for a tie-breaker the week after Round 3. The League booked space at Mistral just in case it's needed." Oobleck checked his clipboard, then went on, "Now, I've been really proud of your sportsmanship in the pre-season..."

Ruby tuned Oobleck out as she took the last flier from Velvet, and noted the Vale-Mistral game in Round 2. _February 20 - Mistral v. Vale @ Mistral_ , and a room number. _Two weeks, she thought to herself. If victory matters so much to the stuck-up bitch, let's shove defeat down her throat, see how she likes the taste._

A shiver of anticipation ran through her at the thought.

###

Ruby Rose rushed the Signal defensive line, dribbling the ball as she ran, and the green-clad players converged on her, blocking any line to the goal. Ruby spun and fired the ball to Yang, who bounced it to Velvet Scarlatina on the Vixens' left wing. One of the Signal players yelled a warning and rushed Velvet, but the lithe brunette was already leaping into the defense zone. The ball leapt from her hand, between the Signal goalie's outstretched arms, and the buzzer sang for the goal before Velvet landed on the hardwood floor. The Vale side of the stands erupted in applause and cheers, the vigor and volume belying the small number of spectators in attendance.

Weiss clapped politely to blend in, feeling oddly nervous, like any moment one of them would denounce her as a spy. A ridiculous notion of course - the AHL gave free tickets to all its players, just so they'd go to the games they weren't playing in. Nonetheless Weiss felt separate, detached from the crowd all around her, parents and friends of Vale players, one of their foes sitting in their midst.

As the applause died down, and the players separated to their respective sides, the older Asian man across the aisle from Weiss leaned over and said, "That's my girl."

Weiss fixed a polite smile over her sudden irrational fear. "Scarlatina?" she asked.

The man shook his head. "Rose and Long," and Weiss realized he'd said _girls_ , not _girl_.

"Are you a teacher?" Weiss asked politely, hiding her heightened anxiety. If Ruby and Yang had told him about Weiss, then this would get awkward very quickly…

"I'm their father." He looked closer at her, and Weiss' lunch congealed into a cold hard lump in her gut. "You play for Mistral, don't you?" The lump grew spikes.

 _Time to face the music_. Weiss nodded, and prepared to run.

The man grinned cheerfully and stuck out his hand, and relief flooded through Weiss. "I'm Bob Long. Nice to meet you."

"Weiss Schnee," Weiss said, and took his hand, hoping her voice didn't betray her sudden relief. Evidently Ruby hadn't told her father about Weiss at all. "Nice to meet you too, sir."

"Aren't you polite?" Bob Long laughed as play began again. With Vale up by eight points and ten minutes left on the clock, the game's conclusion was foretold. The Spartans took the ball against Vale's right wing, and in a storm of green managed to propel the ball past Ruby's interference, past Blake Belladonna's outstretched hands, and into the goal. The Vale side groaned good-naturedly, and Bob Long clapped.

As the teams went back to the centerline for turnover, Ruby shook her fist at the player who'd scored, and Long froze, his hands an inch apart, his back rigid. Weiss sat up straight - Ruby had never done that when Mistral and Vale had played - she'd applauded Mistral's goals with almost irritating cheer. _But maybe she's learning that only winning counts,_ Weiss thought with some approval. _Good. It will make her a stronger opponent._

As she watched the next play, Weiss found her mind wandering back to the previous weekend. Despite the Vixen's irritating naivete, Weiss had often found herself charmed by Ruby, and she wondered what would have become of their date if not for the impossibility of dating a competitor. _Come to think of it, if I try out for the Olympics, we won't be competing directly…_ Weiss felt her cheeks heat, remembering Ruby's entrancing conversation, her smirk, the rose scent of her hair, the warm softness of her skin as they lay… Her cheeks flamed as hot as a sunburn, remembering Ruby's embrace.

She shook off the searing-sweet memories. _It's too bad we were on different teams, Rose. I would have liked to get to know you._ For a moment, she even wished she hadn't walked out on Ruby that night.

 _This has to stop, Weiss_ , she told herself sternly, and shook off the soft sentiments. The world was made by those who were hard, like her father and grandfather, and too many people counted on her; she could not afford to be soft or stupid or sentimental.

The final buzzer sounded, and Weiss shook herself to realize she'd been woolgathering instead of focusing on the game. She glanced up at the scoreboard - Vale had won 27 to 20. Weiss smirked in satisfaction. For her first two seasons with the Maidens, Signal had been the terror of the Pacific tournament, delivering defeat after defeat to Weiss and the Maidens with an impenetrable, finely-meshed defense. But half their team had graduated, and from the reserve bench that was three players short, Coach Goodwitch was clearly having trouble recruiting players. Weiss had felt the change in Signal's tone in the two pre-season games she'd played and won against Signal, but from the stands, the difference had been stark. Obviously, Signal would not be serious opposition in Mistral's march to the championship.

That left… she dropped her eyes to the Vale players as they mingled with their spectators and supporters. Vale had scored 27 points, one more than Mistral in their game with Atlas. _But we can make that up later._

"Would you like to meet my daughters?" Mr. Long said at her shoulder, breaking Weiss out of her reverie.

Weiss smiled up at him and shook her head. "Thank you, but I need to go."

"All right, you take care." He waved for her to precede him down the stands, and Weiss slipped off her bench and down between the stands toward the court.

As she neared the bottom of the stands, Ruby turned away from Yang and started toward her father. Weiss locked eyes with Ruby for a breathless moment. The Vixen's eyes blazed under her crimson bangs, and she demanded, "What are _you_ doing here?"

Weiss' eyes flicked to the door, gauging the distance to escape, but she stiffened her spine and locked eyes with Ruby. _She is the aggressor here. The innocent never run, and to all these people, I am the innocent party._ "I came to watch the game, what's your problem?"

"And you expect me to believe that?" Ruby came up the stairs into Weiss' face. "If you think you can make me believe whatever lies you tell, you can _think again_ ," Ruby hissed.

"I'm not telling any," Weiss shrugged. "I'm just here to watch the game, and now I'm going." She stepped around Ruby and started down the steps.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ruby turn to follow her, but the Vixen stopped when Mr. Long's voice called "Ruby?"

Weiss didn't look back, just strode to the door and out of the gym. Before the door closed behind her, she heard Ruby's voice raised in outrage, her words torn to meaningless shreds by distance.

###

"Rubes, what the hell was that?" Yang leaned on the door of Ruby's locker.

"Weiss. She was _here_." Ruby pulled on her hoodie, adrenaline dancing along her nerves, demanding that she _go, run, go, run_ without thought for the consequences.

"And she made you yell at Dad?" Yang moved between Ruby and the rest of the team. "He was pretty shaken up by that."

"She was _here_ ," Ruby grated. "She was watching. Trying to figure out how to beat us."

"So?" Yang shrugged. "I think you're taking this a little too personally."

"Too personally?" Ruby shouted. "Do you know what she-"

"Of course I know," Yang interrupted, and put a hand on Ruby's shoulder, "but I worry that you're going a little nutty over-"

" _Nutty_!" Ruby barely kept herself from screeching at her half-sister. She slapped away Yang's hand, jerked her bag out of the locker, and slammed the door. The sound flattened the quiet conversation by the rest of the team. Ruby stuck a finger into Yang's face. "Not all of us can fuck everything that moves. Some of us _care_ , Yang."

Yang's face darkened. "Ruby Rose - "

Ruby slammed her bag onto her back, yanked up her hood, and walked away. As she opened the door, she yelled over her shoulder into the stunned silence, "I'll take the bus home."

 

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

Weiss strode down concrete walkways between emerald grass patches that concealed knee-deep mudholes, smirking at the deserted campus all around her. Coming from Nebraska, with its hot sticky summers and cold dry winters, the weather of the Mistral Basin seemed like paradise, and the Californians spoiled brats. Back home, February was a time of snow flurries and wind like a witch's claws, stealing heat and warmth from any exposed skin. Here, the temperatures were more like May or June in Omaha, but with a fraction of the thunderstorms, and no tornadoes at all.

The light rain that dripped off her umbrella all around her, and danced in the puddles on the ground, Weiss regarded as a treat, no matter how much the Californians panicked every time the sky dropped a little water. _I'd like to see them get an inch of snow sometime,_ Weiss thought with a grin, and stopped in the walkway to admire the rain. _They'd probably think the world had ended. It would be fun to watch - from a safe distance._

Some gremlin hiding in Weiss' brain turned the abstract cheery thoughts of indignant Californians into picturing what Ruby would look like with snowflakes dusting her hair, sticking in her eyelashes… _She probably wouldn't panic; she'd probably try to build a snowman…_ Weiss' grin died along with her cheerful mood. She'd managed to keep Ruby out of her head for a whole two minutes that time.

Weiss shook her head and resumed walking toward Signal Academy's parking structures, savagely kicking at a puddle with her boots. _Blast_ Ruby for ruining her good mood. She closed her eyes and tried to derail her umpteenth mental replay of her encounter with Ruby at the game, including all the witty things she could have said to Ruby, to cut off the Vixen and make her look bad, or get Ruby to beg Weiss to go out with her again, or somehow both at once. No matter how much Weiss told her backbrain that _it's over, stop it,_ her mind kept trying to win an argument that Weiss had already fled, and would never be able to return to.

Weiss turned into an alley between two older brick buildings and stopped. A sunken walkway that she'd crossed on the way toward the game was now a river, filled with white frothing water that was at least knee-deep at its deepest, slowly climbing the stairs at Weiss' feet. Weiss cursed and looked around for another way around - every other time she'd been on the Signal campus, even in the rain, this walkway had been clear. 

Footsteps sounded behind her, and Weiss turned to see a compact figure in a red hoodie jog past her, down two steps, and into the ankle-deep water. It - _she_ \- gave a short sharp cry of shock, slipped, and started to tumble forward into the deeper water.

Weiss reacted instantly, lunging forward to grab the back of the hoodie's neck with her free hand, and pulled the figure up to the top of the steps, not releasing her handful of hood until the figure was clearly steady. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Under the protection of Weiss' umbrella, the hood swivelled up toward the sky, down at the water filling the sunken walkway, and a voice said, "I think so, thanks." Pale hands pulled back the hood, revealing black hair, crimson bangs and silver eyes that locked on Weiss.

"Oh no, not you again!" they said at the same time, and Weiss almost dropped her umbrella.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be celebrating with your team?" Weiss asked, and immediately regretted the bite of sarcasm in her tone.

"I'm going home," Ruby snapped. "What are you doing? Looking for more girls you can trick into fucking you?"

Weiss bit down on a shriek of outrage. "Hey! I never tricked you, and sex was _your_ idea, not mine!"

"Because _somehow_ I thought you loved me, or were interested in me for _me_ , not just _using_ me!" Ruby snapped back, and the corners of her eyes glittered wetly.

" _You_ were the one who kept pushing things." Weiss stepped closer to Ruby and poked her forehead. " _You_ invited me back to your place, _you_ cleared out your sister, _you_ invited me to your bed, and you blame _me_ for using you?" When Ruby took a step back, opening her mouth to respond, Weiss pressed her advantage, and took a step forward. "You _knew_ that I'm in the closet, and that we're on different teams, Ruby. You knew a relationship between us wouldn't work, you make it all my fault, and _I'm_ the one who's being manipulative?"

Ruby half-turned away, her eyes shut tight, and Weiss suppressed a completely inappropriate desire to hug the little brat and make her feel better. But before she could apologize, Ruby opened her eyes and snapped around, putting her face inches from Weiss'. "You forgot that _you_ kissed me first. _You_ asked me out. Why did you do that, unless you wanted to use me for something? If a relationship couldn't work, why didn't you say so? Why didn't you say 'hey, I can't do a relationship with someone on a different team, so let's do this no-strings-attached?' Instead, you kept saying 'let's talk about it in the morning,' which seemed to imply that you'd actually be there in the morning!" Ruby looked like she was about to spit in Weiss' face, but whirled away and stomped back the way she'd come.

Weiss watched her go with panic fighting shame in her chest, because she'd asked Ruby out, and _then_ figured out how to use Ruby to help Coach Fall win the victory, and Weiss felt unbearably filthy from the whole thing. Watching Ruby walk away, something snapped in her chest. "I'm sorry," she called at Ruby's receding back.

Ruby stopped and half-turned until the barest hint of dark hair and pale nose could be seen in the shadows of the hood. "What?"

"I'm sorry it couldn't work between us. I really wish it could have." A stray thought from the game floated to the surface of Weiss' mind, and she rushed to spill it to Ruby before Ruby could make her snap again. "But I'm graduating next semester. I won't be on the handball team next year; I'll be trying out for the Olympic team. Do you want to go out with me after the tournament's over, and we don't have to be rivals?"

The hood turned a little more toward Weiss, revealing Ruby's eyes, blazing like bonfires. "Why would I want that? Why would anyone want to go out with _you_?"

"Hey!" Weiss said indignantly. "I know, I can be… _difficult_ , but give me a chance, I thought you liked me!"

"Difficult? That's one word for you." Ruby turned away from Weiss, and Weiss fought back tears at all her mistakes slapping her in the face. She balled her fists at her sides to keep them from covering her eyes. _No, no, never let them see you break._ She wondered why she even bothered asking, and cursed Ruby for getting under her skin in that way.

Ruby stopped, turned, and walked back to Weiss. Weiss watched her out of the corner of her eye, not quite willing to look directly at Ruby and risk making her feelings known. "You really want to go out with me?"

Weiss, her mouth dry, nodded and met Ruby's eyes directly.

Ruby smirked and stepped under Weiss' umbrella. "How'd you like to make a bet on our next game?"

"A bet?" Ruby's boldness, so different from her diffident shyness, was stirring up awful butterflies in Weiss' midsection. "What kind of bet?"

Ruby ran a single finger down the shaft of Weiss' umbrella. "It hinges on who wins our game next weekend." Ruby's hand closed around the umbrella's shaft, just above Weiss' hand. "We go to a hotel room, which you pay for, and the winner gets to dictate what happens in the hotel room until dawn. And then we part, no strings attached." Ruby leaned her head against the umbrella shaft and smiled sweetly at Weiss. "But protection isn't optional, honey. I don't trust your fluids any more than I trust you."

"Why am I paying for this?" Weiss demanded, and pulled her umbrella away from Ruby. Then she realized - whichever way this bet came out, she would have an opportunity to win Ruby back to her cause - for a longer term than just a night. Ruby played the tempting tease with great panache, but Weiss didn't believe for a moment that the Vixen was actually serious on the point of "no strings attached." However much she tried to hide it, Ruby exuded love, spilling it everywhere with as little thought as a jacaranda tree for its petals.

"Because, my little Weissicle, not all of us are riiiiich," Ruby sang. "If I have to pay for it, we'll be in a roach motel. Which would just _kill_ the mood."

"Good point." Weiss considered the possibilities carefully. It sounded like she she could, with some effort between the sheets, win Ruby back to her side, whether or not she won the game between Mistral and Vale. In fact, if Weiss won, she could win Ruby by comforting her in the bedroom.

But relying upon her limited sexual skills did not suit Weiss' purpose. She'd been trained, by her father's tutors and her boarding school alike, to be charming, and Ruby had been charmed by her on their first date… "And if I win, and want you to show me a good time outside the bedroom?"

"I'm not rich, Schnee, I can't entertain you in the style to which you are no doubt accustomed."

Weiss kept herself from rolling her eyes at the acid bite in Ruby's voice. "You're a Mistral native. I'm from Nebraska, and I've seen very little of it. You wouldn't have to break the bank, just show me something interesting. I keep hearing about the culture of this heap of a city, but I haven't seen any yet."

Ruby narrowed her eyes as if testing Weiss for sincerity. "Fine, but if I win, you gotta show me a good time."

"I don't know what you like... " Weiss tilted her head as an idea occurred to her. "The loser decides - and pays for - whatever happens on the date portion, but back at the hotel room, the winner decides."

"I like that!" Ruby said, and tilted her head to the side. "But the winner can say, at any point, 'I'm done,' and we go back to the hotel room."

Weiss grimaced, but admitted it made a fair point, and reserved to the winner her due. But she resolved to be a gracious date to Ruby after she won. There would be little to be gained by gloating. "But if your protection isn't optional, my closet status isn't either. Nothing public that could out me."

Ruby bit her lip and tilted her head back, seemingly studying the underside of Weiss' umbrella. Then she nodded slowly. "Okay, that works."

"Then it's a bet." Weiss held out her hand.

"It's a bet." Ruby stepped back, shook Weiss' hand, and yanked her into a rough, breath-stealing, lip-biting kiss. Weiss felt heat rise in her cheeks. "Got a pen?" Ruby hissed after retreating an inch.

"I… should." Weiss muttered, and looked away from the shining silver eyes so close to her own, to dig through her purse. She grabbed a ballpoint pen from her purse and offered it to Ruby.

Ruby took the pen and scrawled something across the back of Weiss' wrist. Weiss put an effort into keeping her face straight, not breaking eye contact with Ruby, despite the painful pressure, until Ruby dropped the pen back into Weiss' purse. "That's my number," Ruby said. "Don't contact me until the game."

Ruby grabbed Weiss' collar in both hands and pressed her lips onto Weiss'. When she broke the kiss, Ruby's breath puffed warm and wet on Weiss' cheeks. "We're gonna beat you like a drum, darling." Ruby released her and turned to walk away, leaving Weiss trembling and blushing with memories of exactly what Ruby had done to her.

Some oversocialized part of Weiss' brain reached down to her mouth and blurted, "Take care!"

Ruby stopped and turned a scowl on Weiss. "What was that?"

Weiss stopped herself from recoiling from Ruby's displeasure, and covered her uncertainty with a haughty smile. "Take care. I want you at your best when we wipe the court with you." She let her smile quirk up at one side. "And I want your body in its best shape when I ravish you."

Ruby grinned. "You just try."

Ruby turned and walked away into the rain, and Weiss watched her disappear around the corner of a building.

Weiss hefted her umbrella higher, looked around at the flooded walkway, and sighed. _Well, that went well. She's much fiercer than I gave her credit for._

_But that won't help her. Now I really have a reason to win._

She looked across the flooded water, then turned on her heel and walked away.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here, the Mistral Basin is roughly analogous to my home megalopolis of Los Angeles. Other than the names, the geography isn't really important.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sporting is back! I hope to finish the entire thing by the end of summer, but my ongoing job search, conferences, and my original fiction projects are going to make that interesting. Thanks for sticking with me!

Weiss came back to her dorm to find Pyrrha hunched over a laptop and tapping away on some project. "Hi Pyrrha, I'm home," she said loudly, conscious of Pyrrha's old reflexes, and her roommate acknowledged her with a wave of her hand.

Pyrrha finished a paragraph and looked up at Weiss. "How was the game?"

Weiss opened her mouth to ask _what game_ , then remembered why she'd been at Signal to begin with. In the rush of regret and hope and excitement at encountering Ruby again, she'd forgotten, and had to make an effort to drag up the mask of the handball player. "It was okay. I don't think Signal is going to be a serious challenge. Vale beat them 27-20. They still haven't recruited enough people."

"That's too bad." Pyrrha stretched her arms up and back, then looked at Weiss over her shoulder. "I heard you had a bit of a blowup with Ruby Rose. You okay?"

Weiss stiffened in shock and anger, but her outrage was dimmed by the obvious concern in Pyrrha's eyes. She reminded herself that Pyrrha was looking out for her. "How did you know that? I didn't see anyone else from the team there!"

"Not our team. Someone I know at Signal." Pyrrha paused, then asked more quietly, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No!" As soon as the word came out of her mouth, Weiss regretted it for the flash of pain in Pyrrha's eyes. After a moment, something Pyrrha had said caught Weiss' attention. "Wait, you have friends at Signal?"

Pyrrha looked up from her work. "Of course I do," she said slowly. "They're handball players just like us. We're not... different tribes or religions, there's no ancient blood-feud between 'us' and 'them.' One of my mentors has a daughter who goes to Signal. One of the Vale players is dating a guy I knew in the Marines. What does it _matter_ if we're friends or enemies? Being enemies takes more energy, and I have better things to do."

Weiss stared dumbfounded. She'd always known Pyrrha had odd notions, but the vehemence in her roommate's voice took Pyrrha aback. But... she couldn't bring herself to disagree. Wasn't she contemplating romancing a rival? "Does Coach know?"

"I doubt it, but I don't care," Pyrrha said flatly, and returned to her work. "She is not my commanding officer, she is not my sergeant, and I'm not in the Corps anymore. I do not give a damn what she thinks."

Weiss' jaw dropped open - she'd never heard Pyrrha be a hair less than respectful of Coach Fall. "Why are you on the team? Much less the captain?"

"It's a long story." Pyrrha glanced up. "And not one I'm going to tell. Don't you have work to do?"

Weiss closed her mouth with a snap. "You're right, I do." She turned to her own desk with a sinking heart.

###

The next morning, Yang was snarling at her chemistry homework when Ruby emerged from her room. Yang glanced up once, then pulled her eyes back to the page full of reactions as Ruby padded into the kitchen. Ruby had beaten Yang home the previous day, and hadn't emerged from her room since. Ruby had spent a lot of time on her homework since starting college, but today Yang worried about her sister's reclusiveness. On the other hand… Yang winced at the thought of talking to her sister about her emotional state. The memory of Ruby's snarling face, flushed and fire-eyed back in the Signal locker room, made Yang wince again. No, not the time to pick at her sister's wounds again. After all, she'd done _such_ a good job the last time.

The hum of the refrigerator increased slightly as the door was opened, and stayed louder for a long time. Yang glanced up to see Ruby crouched and staring aimlessly into the refrigerator. Yang bit her lip, then said, without expression, "Ned made jambalaya last night, it's in the blue box."

"Oh. Thanks." Ruby said robotically, as she reached into the fridge and retrieved a plastic box. "Sorry I didn't come out last night. I was working on homework." Yang nodded and bit her lip before she could try to comfort her sister. That had worked really well in the Signal locker room.

Not for the first time, Yang wished she could believe in Hell just to see Weiss Schnee there. She wished Weiss' team captain hadn't intervened before she could beat the privileged little shit into a pulp as she so richly deserved.

Yang stifled a sigh at the thought. On the other hand, if Nikos hadn't been there, she'd probably be in jail, her path to being a firefighter permanently off the rails. For that, she supposed she should be grateful.

She glanced up at Ruby, sitting at the table, eating mechanically. Yang took a deep breath, rehearsed and discarded three different lines, and finally settled on, "I'm sorry."

Ruby looked up. "Sorry?"

"Yesterday." Yang bit her lip and powered through. "I shouldn't have said that. It's your first time, your first broken heart. You deal with it the way you need to."

A smile flickered across Ruby's face. "I am. It's okay, sis." Ruby set down her fork, and grinned. It cheered Yang to see a hint of the old carefree Ruby. Whatever else, Yang's half-sister was more resilient than she looked. "To be honest, I think I'll feel much better after we beat the piss out of Mistral in the game next weekend. Rub defeat in that bitch's face, if all she wants is to win."

Yang felt her smile freeze, and forced a more natural grin. After all, it wasn't her place to dictate her sister's desires, and if winning would help Ruby heal, then surely it wouldn't do any harm. "It's a sure thing." Yang grinned at her sister. "Could you call Dad and tell him you're okay? He was worried."

Ruby tilted her head to one side, then nodded. "All right. Later," she said with some of yesterday's truculence returning to her voice, and Yang returned her eyes to her homework, knowing she wouldn't get anything further out of Ruby without another argument.

She drummed her fingers on the table, chemical reactions passing unseen before her eyes, and thought about their mothers. Ruby's mother Summer had died when they were young, but Yang's mother had disappeared just after Yang was born. Where she'd gone, or even if she was living or dead, nobody Yang knew could say for certain. Ruby had a grave near their childhood home, in the hills north of Mistral; Yang had a picture, flashed on dark nights in scary places, and the silence of closed-mouthed men and women. Those dark nights had led her to one of her current gigs, and Ned, but they'd also left her with a deep rage for the woman who'd left without a word; the woman who walked out without even trying to be a mother, or even a friend. Maybe she'd left for a good reason.

Yang wondered how much of her rage toward Weiss was just her old rage toward abandonment in general. Goodness knew her mother's flight, and her own fruitless search for answers, had burned a deep anger into Yang's bones, waiting for a spark to light a fire that set the whole world alight. And she knew, _knew_ as she knew the scars on her knuckles, that Weiss had inadvertently set off the same rage that had sent men and women from the dark scary places to the hospital when they'd crossed her path in the wrong way. Usually she'd fled into the night by the time anyone got around to calling an ambulance.

She glanced up at Ruby, eating jambalaya and doodling something on her napkin. Yang thought about the vicious revenge taken in those dark places her sister had never been. One act of revenge, for something small like spoiled pride or thwarted desire, set off feuds that could claim half a dozen lives before they burned out.

Yang wondered if she should warn her sister about the toxic joy of revenge, and the bad roads it led to. But one look at Ruby, chortling quietly as she drew, drove those thoughts out of Yang's mind. Ruby was sweet and happy, totally unlike the bitter and angry men who took revenge for any grievance they could find. _She's a good kid, good in a way not a lot of people are._ She let herself feel a little glow of pride at the thought. _Dad and I did a good job raising her._

Yang shook her head, slowly, and bent her attention to her chemistry homework. Ruby would be all right, with time and healing. Yang had other problems to deal with.

###

Weiss was about to head out for a morning jog when Pyrrha came out into their dorm's common room. "Heading out?" she asked.

"Yeah," Weiss kept her voice light and casual with an effort, remembering Pyrrha's frosty demeanor the night before. "I thought I'd do two or three laps of the school. Build up my endurance for the Vale game."

"Not a bad idea. They do seem to like speed tactics," Pyrrha said, and paused. "Mind if I join you? I was kinda shitty last night."

"Anytime," Weiss smiled at her roommate, and was surprised at the genuine warmth that bent her lips. "I think I've been bitchy at you enough times since we've been living together, you get a free pass."

"I still feel bad," Pyrrha said in a low voice as they walked through the corridors of their building. "I'd had a bad day, and I took it out on you. I'm sorry."

"It's all right." Weiss smiled at Pyrrha as they emerged into the light of early morning, and started to jog along the walkway. Pyrrha's hair bannered out behind her, while Weiss' heavier ponytail swung back and forth like a pendulum. "Better you vent at me than someone else. I mean, if you vent at Jaune that way, he'll fall on his own sword."

Pyrrha's lips curled up in a wry smile at the mention of her boyfriend. "I have vented at him that way, on really bad days; you underestimate his resilience."

"Ha, I hadn't thought he had the grit for that," Weiss said. "You're really lucky. I wish I could have a relationship like yours."

"It's not luck," Pyrrha said as she dodged around a bus stop sign. "It takes work to keep a relationship going. You'll have the kind of relationship you want when you meet the right person, Weiss, don't worry about it."

Weiss thought about bright silver eyes and dirty giggles, smiles on a pile of pillows and scorn with rain falling all around. Pyrrha's voice broke into her musings. "Oh, by the way, I won't be home tonight. I'm going out with Jaune for Valentine's Day. I'll be back sometime in the morning."

"Oh, okay," Weiss said, trying to keep the old familiar loneliness out of her voice. She was glad that Valentine's Day was falling on a Sunday. She could stay inside all day, where she wouldn't have to see amorous couples everywhere, and be reminded of her own solitude. Or worse, her failures.

The thought that she could have had a discreet relationship with Ruby Rose, if not for her commitment to the team and Coach Fall, suddenly lodged in her gut with all the force of a fist. Weiss stumbled and barely caught herself before she fell. Pyrrha stopped and grabbed Weiss' shoulders. "Hey, you okay?"

"I-" Weiss recovered her balance, then flexed her legs one at a time to make sure everything still worked. It took a moment for the shuddery-falling feeling in her stomach to go away. "I'm fine. Just tripped." She couldn't look at Pyrrha's face.

"Okay, you need to take a break? Sit down?"

"Let's just walk for a bit." Weiss turned and walked down the pathway, chewing on her lip. She wondered how to ask what she needed to ask. Pyrrha hadn't given her any flak over Ruby Rose before… "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything." In the corner of her eyes, Weiss could see Pyrrha's smile.

Weiss took a deep breath and carefully asked, "When you - um - go out with Jaune - you don't go back to his place -" She felt herself stumbling.

"No, he has roommates... " Pyrrha trailed off and cocked her head to one side. "Weiss, are you asking me to recommend a hotel?"

Weiss, her face burning like the sun, nodded rapidly, relieved that she didn't have to actually say the words.

Pyrrha laughed out loud, and Weiss wanted to curl up and die, right there on the sidewalk. She turned away, and Pyrrha's arms went around her shoulders. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh," Pyrrha chuckled next to her ear, and Weiss leaned into the kindness, the unyielding support of her friend's arms. Pyrrha stepped back and turned Weiss' shoulders to face her, green eyes sparkling in the morning sun. "What, you've got another date? You can use the dorm room, I won't be back 'til eight or so in the morning."

"Not tonight," Weiss said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Saturday, after the Vale game."

"Oh good, you're not doing this at the last minute." Pyrrha's grin could have lit up Port Square. "The Forever Fall Inn is okay; it's got a student discount, and it's right near campus. But it probably depends where you're going before you check in."

"Um." Weiss felt her face grow even hotter, and cursed her pale skin for betraying her blushes. "I don't know yet. It all depends on who wins the Vale game. It's kind of… a bet."

"A bet." Pyrrha grinned. "You have the _healthiest_ relationships, you know that?"

"Har har, I couldn't get a lot of experience back in Omaha," Weiss said. "Seriously, Pyrrha, I really want this to go well; it got screwed up before, and now I've got a chance to fix it."

"Huh." Pyrrha led them off jogging down the walkway. As Weiss caught up with her captain, Pyrrha asked, "Is it Ruby Rose again? Her sister was pretty angry about that."

"It was her idea," Weiss said defensively, fighting down a sudden flush of irritation. Dammit, Pyrrha wasn't her father, to allow or forbid her romantic choices; she was just Weiss' roommate. She was just -

Just the person who'd introduced Weiss to the handball team, just the person who'd helped her navigate the complicated dynamics of the locker room. Pyrrha was just the person who'd put her body between Weiss and a murderously enraged Yang Xiao Long, and had cooled the blonde's fire with just two words.

Weiss took a deep breath, broken by the vibrations of her shoes striking concrete. "It was her idea, Pyrrha," she repeated. "And this time, we worked it out in advance; no strings attached, in the morning we go our separate ways." _Except,_ Weiss thought, _if Ruby accepts my proposition to date after the tournament is over. Which she will; I can't imagine her saying no, as cheery and affectionate as she is._

"Okay," Pyrrha said, and Weiss stifled another flare of resentment at the doubt in her captain's voice. "It's your life. I hope it goes okay for you."

"I hope so too. I'm really motivated to win this." Weiss said as they rounded a corner. "Sprint to that stop sign?"

"You're on," Pyrrha said with a grin, and together they surged forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be running an informal poll of my readership. Drop me an ask at http://plotbunnyfarm.tumblr.com/ask telling me who you think will win the Vale vs. Mistral game. I know who's going to win already, I'm just interested in your predictions. I'll release the results with Chapter 9.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know next to nothing about sports, so this might not make a lot of sense. I'm lucky all my sentences come out complete, so I just hope this comes across half-coherent. Enjoy.

Yang walked into the Vixens' locker room and felt like forty pounds came off her shoulders as the familiar locker-room scents of sweat and deodorant filled her lungs. She loved the locker room, loved the comradeship between athletes, loved the exertion. Most of all, she loved that for the next two hours, she could ignore the pile of homework that had landed on her in her morning classes.

The whole team was there, changing into practice clothes. Ruby was already changed, her locker sealed behind her, giggling as she was hip-checked back and forth between Coco Adel and Velvet Scarlatina.

The sight put a grin on Yang's face as she changed into her practice clothes. When she finished and closed her locker, the last of the Vixens to get changed, the rest of the Vixens huddled in a circle, arms across each others' shoulders and backs, tangling in each others' hair. Ruby settled between Velvet and Coco Adel, her arms around each waist, a hint of her old insouciant grin in her smile. The pair had done a great deal to break Ruby out of her shyness when Yang had recruited her sister to the team, and Yang was glad to see them supporting her sister.

Yang smiled as Coco's hand fluffed Ruby's hair, and she wondered whether Ruby would accept their invitation this time. Coco and Velvet's open polyamorous tetrad was… unusual, to say the least, but Ruby could do much worse.

 _She can't do much worse than Weiss,_ Yang thought, then shook off her rage. "Okay, guys, this Saturday is our game against Mistral…"

###

The gymnasium rang with the echoes of shoes on the polished wooden floor as the Mistral Maidens and Vale Vixens scrimmaged on the court. Weiss tried to focus on staying in the middle of the Vixen's formation, staying in position to intercept any passes from wing to wing. Coach Fall had pulled Weiss from the left wing and stuck her in the 'pivot' position. The Malachite twins had replaced Weiss and Nea Politos on the left wing, and Coach Fall had tasked them with neutralizing Ruby Rose, and the tactic seemed to be working, with Mistral up 8-4 at the end of the first quarter.

Weiss grinned savagely as she saw Ruby struggling to get clear of the Malachite twins' interference. Weiss had to admit that Ruby seemed to be enjoying herself as she frantically tried to dodge toward the edge of the court, flashing a savage grin as she skipped backward. The red streaks in Ruby's hair glittered and flashed as she moved, and Weiss was struck with the sudden stunning vision of Ruby grinning like that with her head to a pillow…

The ball flashed past Weiss to Nora Valkyrie, and Weiss snarled to herself to _focus, you idiot!_ She took a step toward Valkyrie, intending to block the Vixen's shot, but she was too late - the stocky redhead had taken the shot, and the packed Mistral side of the stands sighed in unison as Julia Beria caught the ball just short of the goal.

Weiss determinedly shut Ruby out of her mind and jogged backward, away from Valkyrie. Julia feinted to the left, then popped the ball to Weiss. Weiss turned and dribbled the ball down the court as the Maidens shifted into offense.

###

At halftime, Ruby sagged into the shoulders of Yang and Penny, feeling like she'd been rolled in a barrel downhill. The black-haired Malachite twins had kept her busy and impotent, and she had to keep herself from glaring over her shoulder at the silver ponytail hanging from the Mistral Maidens' halftime huddle. Her suspicions had been confirmed by the way the Maidens had been able to nearly read the Vale players' minds. She swore that she'd make Weiss regret that, one way or another. But first, she had to win their bet, a tall order with the Maidens up 14-9.

"How the hell do they know what we're doing?" Coco asked from across the circle. "Ruby, I hate to ask, but did you tell that Jenny girl about our tactics?"

Yang started to snarl at Coco, but Ruby silenced her sister with a jerk of her hand, tangled in Yang's hair. Ruby took a deep breath and said in a voice not meant to carry outside their circle, "It wasn't Jenny. I… um… went out with Weiss Schnee. And yeah, we talked handball."

Coco bit her lip and glared over Ruby's shoulder. The rest of the team stared at Ruby, their expressions darkening. Ruby said hastily, "It seemed like the only thing she had going! Certainly the only thing we had in common!"

"We're not mad at you, kitten," Blake said with a firm nod, "We're mad at the person who took advantage of our sister."

Yang and Penny squeezed Ruby between them, and Ruby bathed in the warmth of her team's love and support, even after she'd screwed up so badly. "Right, let's win this thing," Ruby said. "Let's take me off the court, they're all focused on the right wing and countering my fast attacks."

"I would have taken you off the court anyway," Barty Oobleck said. "You look exhausted. Yang?"

"Right-o," Yang nodded sharply, her purple eyes flashing. Ruby could practically hear the gears turning in her half-sister's skull. "Penny, you're right wing. Play defensive, don't let them get past you. Velvet, switch for Coco-" Yang's grin turned blazing, "You're with me. Let's give them hell."

###

After the team huddle broke up, Ruby flopped down onto the Vixens' bench, showing more exhaustion than she really wanted to show. Velvet Scarlatina sat next to her with more grace as the Vixens and Maidens met in the center of the court to resume play. With Yang, Coco, and Nora on an aggressive offense in the center, the Vixens scored three points in quick succession, narrowing the Maidens' lead to two points. A fourth attempt was caught by Beria, the Maiden goalie, the Maidens spiralled into a counterattack that ended with Weiss scoring a goal, and the Mistral spectators erupted in cheers. At the toss-out the ball was seized by Vale, and Ruby's eyes followed the metronomic swing of Weiss' ponytail as Weiss went with the rest of the Maidens toward the Mistral goal.

"So, you tapped that butt?" Velvet murmured to Ruby, nodding to Weiss. "How was she?"

"Yep." Ruby nodded and put on a bluff face. "Would you believe she didn't know what a dental dam was?"

"Oh my god," Velvet chuckled, a low and dirty sound that sent a thrill through Ruby. "Please tell me you used protection, love."

She watched Velvet's eyes follow Coco as she took a shot, intercepted by the Mistral goalie, and the ball turned over to the Maidens. Velvet and Coco together had propositioned Ruby shortly after the team found out about her sexuality, with Yang's blessing. Though she'd declined - Velvet and Coco's open relationship with their two mutual boyfriends had been too strange and new to her experience to involve herself with - her confidence had been boosted by the very idea that such glamorous and beautiful people found _her_ attractive! She grinned at Velvet. "Of course! Yeah, that made me really determined to be safe."

"Good girl," Velvet put an arm around Ruby's shoulder and leaned in a little closer. "Are you sure you're okay, though? You seem to expect… more than just a casual hookup."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ruby said, shrugging off Velvet's hand to hide the pang of rage and pain and regret that went through her at the memory of her silly little daydreams of building a relationship with Weiss, her plans of sweeping the little heiress off her feet into the mists of happily-ever-after.

"Okay," Velvet said, and her hand slid up Ruby's spine. "You wanna hang out with Coco and me tonight? The boys will be away."

Ruby shook her head and gave Velvet a smile. "Thanks, but I've got plans tonight."

Velvet didn't pursue the subject further, and Ruby watched with narrowed eyes as Weiss came off the court, replaced by a stockier girl with pink streaks in her brown hair, and Weiss doubled over on the Maidens bench. It looked like Yang and Coco had been very rough with Weiss, and the spoiled little brat couldn't take the heat.

One side of Ruby's mouth curled up at the sight. _I learned my lesson. Looks like she's getting hers. And if we win, she'll get a bigger one._ "Yeah, go Penny!" She called as her replacement intercepted a pass.

Ruby sat back on the bench and cheered with satisfaction as Yang scored another goal.

###

Weiss collapsed on the bench, her limbs trembling with fatigue and exhaustion. Soon, she knew, the red flushed mottling would give way to dozens of bruises up and down her whole body. Every Vixen had seemed to have Weiss in their crosshairs whenever the referees weren't looking, and she felt like she'd been rolled down a hill in a barrel of gravel.

She looked up as Vale scored yet another goal. Vale had changed their tactics on the fly, from relying on the speed of Rose, Scarlatina, and Ironwood on the wings to a thundering center-offense anchored on their two biggest players, Yang Xiao Long and Coco Adel. On the Mistral side, only Pyrrha came close to matching their height and athleticism. The Maidens could sometimes outmaneuver the Vixen center, but that edge couldn't quite make up for the Vixens' sheer momentum.

Both sides scored goal after goal in the swirling melee of the second half, but Vale's punishing offense narrowed Mistral's lead more often than the Maidens could increase it. Cinder glared and fumed, and Weiss tried to make herself small on the bench - nothing in her notes had indicated Vale had anything like _this_ in their playbook.

By the last five minutes of the fourth quarter, Weiss had recovered enough to take the right wing, letting Nea switch into the center to try to outmaneuver Yang. Pyrrha, exhausted and panting, took Weiss' place on the bench.

As the clock counted down, with the score tied at 24 points, Weiss followed on the outer wing as Nea dribbled down the court, deftly outmaneuvering Xiao Long and Adel. Weiss dodged around the copper-haired girl on Vale's right wing, and leapt into the Vixens' defense zone as Nea passed her the ball. She took a mid-air shot at the Vixens' goal, hit the floor, and gasped in horror as her shot bounced off the edge of the goal just as the buzzer announced the end of the game.

Weiss felt about an inch tall as she picked herself up off the court, avoiding Coach Fall's scorching glare. Nea went off the court, replaced by a recovered Pyrrha. Ruby came back on the court, taking her place opposite Weiss as the teams lined up in the center for the sudden-death tie-breaker overtime. The next goal scored would end the game.

One of the referees threw the ball up in the air from the exact center of the court, then ducked out of the way. Both teams' centers converged on the ball in a confused scrum, with flanking players keeping their distance, watching each other, waiting for an opportunity to move in offense or defense. Pyrrha ended up with the ball, and she threw it up in a curved arc that landed in Miltia Malachite's hands. Miltia bounced the ball in turn out of the scrum to Emily Sustrai, working the left wing with Weiss. Weiss raced toward the Vale goal, dodging around Ruby and leapt across the defensive line, trying to replicate her last play.

Emily passed the ball toward Weiss, but Ruby dashed across the defensive line, grabbing the ball and firing it up the court to Adel, the tall brown-haired girl who'd been Xiao Long's partner in the center. Weiss picked herself up off the floor and forced her aching body down the court to follow the ball.

She caught up with the ball as Vale's offense bogged down in a confused, whirling scrum around the center of the court, Vixens and Maidens intercepting the ball from each other while referees looked on in alarm. Nea ended up with the ball and tried to pass it to one of the Malachite twins, but the ball was intercepted by Scarlatina.

Scarlatina dribbled the ball up the court, her brown hair bannering behind her, barely outpacing the Malachite twins desperately trying to intercept the ball from her, and fired the ball to Yang Xiao Long, who'd broken from the scrum. Catching the ball, Yang swung and fired it with all her incredible might at the Maidens goal. Weiss couldn't see the goal beyond Adel and Valkyrie, but she could see the appalled face on the Maidens' faces as the buzzer announced the Vixens' victory, and the Vale side of the stands erupted in deafening celebration.

Nea dropped to her knees, face buried in her hands, and Weiss rushed to her teammate's side, ignoring the whooping Vale players gathering around the blond pillar of Xiao Long. Weiss slipped her arm under Nea's shoulder and lifted the shorter girl to her feet, whispering reassurances into her teammate's ears, her fingertips writing comfort across the shorter girl's back and shoulders, all while she blinked back her own tears.

Nea stopped crying and smiled up at Weiss as the players began gathering in the center of the court for the end-of-game handshake line. More than a few of the Vale players, including Xiao Long, squeezed Weiss' hand like they were trying to break bones, making her wince and fight to keep her face straight. _Never let them see you hurt,_ her father's voice thundered in her head.

At the end of the handshake line, a grinning Ruby squeezed Weiss' hand gently, without the bone-breaking force of her teammates. Her silver eyes glittered with promise, and Weiss felt her heart lift a little from the ashes of defeat. Even if Mistral hadn't won as Weiss hoped, she consoled herself with the thought of the silver lining of an opportunity.

###

As Weiss walked out of the gym toward the Maidens' locker room, moving carefully to avoid further strain to her protesting muscles, Pyrrha fell in beside her. "Do you still… not know what you're doing tonight? On your date?" The Maidens' captain asked quietly.

Weiss bit back an angry reply, and made herself swallow her adrenaline and bile. "I'll figure out something. Know any nice fancy places for dinner and a movie, or something?" She took a deep breath and smiled up at her roommate. "Thanks for the hotel recommendation, by the way; I'm glad I'm not doing _everything_ at the last minute."

"Anytime. Talk to me after, I've got - " Pyrrha cut off as she pushed open the door to the Maidens' locker room, and an angry voice spilled out into the hallway.

Coach Fall had stormed off ahead of the Maidens even before the handshake line had finished, and Weiss winced at the sight of Fall with hands on her hips and fire in her eyes, standing opposite Julia Beria, who was cradling her left wrist close to her body. "-don't care, Beria. Can you do a _proper_ job of being a goalie?"

Weiss grabbed Pyrrha's shoulder before her roommate, green eyes suddenly blazing, could throw herself into the middle of the conflict. Julia straightened her shoulders, lifted her chin, and said, "I _almost_ had _this_ one, but it bounced off my wrist!"

"I am not interested in excuses," Coach Fall hissed, her voice dripping venom, and Weiss' grip on Pyrrha's shoulder tightened. "Can you, or _can you not_ , handle your responsibilities? Because your incompetence may have cost us the tournament!"

Pyrrha broke Weiss' grip on her shoulder and took a step forward. "Coach, we can still win the tournament." Fall's eyes blazed with golden fury, but Pyrrha barrelled on, "Vale is up against Atlas in the next round, but we're up against Signal - a much weaker team than Atlas. All we have to do is score enough points to win the tournament."

Coach Fall's eyes blazed, and Weiss braced herself for a royal tongue-lashing. She wasn't disappointed. "Miss Nikos, I hope you never spoke to your officers that way."

"I'm not in the military anymore, _Coach_ ," Pyrrha bit out, her hands clenched into fists. "And I trusted my officers to know the difference between a battle and a campaign. We can still win, if you see the big picture and plan for it, _rather than berate my people for getting injured_."

Fall's glare would have reduced most people to a grease stain on the floor. Before Fall could reply to Pyrrha, or Pyrrha could say something that everyone would regret, Weiss stepped between her captain and her coach. "Pyrrha's right, Coach," she said in her best let's-see-the-big-picture voice, the one she used when wrangling fractious groups into finishing class projects. "I'm disappointed that we lost today, but we only lost by one point. All the yelling in the world won't change that; we can only move on from where we are. We're still well-positioned to leverage our resources to win the Pacific Regional Tournament."

Pyrrha and Julia stared at Weiss like she'd grown a second head. Coach Fall looked away at the rest of the team, standing back away from Fall's wrath, ran a hand through her hair, and nodded sharply. "I see your point," she said after a long moment, then glared at Pyrrha and Weiss. "But I expect you all to train hard for the Signal game next week. You girls are better than second place."

Weiss squared her shoulders and nodded sharply. Coach Fall whirled and stomped out of the locker room, her shoes ringing on the concrete. Weiss sagged and rubbed at her eyes. She felt like she'd been hollowed out by the game, and it seemed like Coach didn't appreciate her hard work at all. Pyrrha walked over to Julia and inspected her wrist, then sent the goalie off to Mistral's infirmary.

Ignoring the resentful, demoralized muttering of her team, Weiss trudged over to her locker and rested her head against the cool steel. She wished she could settle for less for once. She remembered Ruby's voice saying, _It's supposed to be fun, you know?_ Her limbs aching and trembling as the last of the adrenaline wore off, Weiss wished she could feel the same way. It seemed to take the sting out of defeat.

As Weiss leaned back and entered her lock combination, Pyrrha appeared with a couple pieces of paper in her hand, which she held out to Weiss. "Here. For tonight, if you need ideas."

Weiss took them and her eyes widened at the logo of stylized figures dipping in ballroom dance moves. "Pyrrha, I'm in the closet, I can't be too public..." Pyrrha pointed at a line of text at the bottom. _**Absolutely no photography permitted except in marked areas - this is supposed to be a safe space for people who aren't out.**_

Weiss blinked, then looked over the ticket again. "Is this...?"

"A ballroom dance event for queer couples?" Pyrrha finished. "That's exactly what it is. One of Jaune's sisters is involved, and she roped him into playing music for them. There's a banquet included, if you haven't made dinner plans."

"Huh, that's… thank you, Pyrrha, that's incredibly generous." Weiss struggled to keep her voice neutral, but her eyebrows rose up her forehead at the gesture. "I owe you a big one."

"Thank Jaune, he pulled the strings. You have fun." Pyrrha gently punched Weiss' shoulder, then turned and walked away. Weiss smiled at Pyrrha's back as she opened her locker. _I have good friends. Pyrrha, I'm glad I met you._

Weiss pulled her cellphone from her locker and sent a text to Ruby. _**You win our bet. Do you have a formal dress and dancing shoes? - Weiss**_

Weiss grabbed her toiletries, left her phone in her locker, and went to take a shower. When she came back, a text message was waiting on her phone.

_**I still have my prom dress if that'll do.** _

Weiss stifled a pang of envy. Her high school, an all-girls boarding school, had held a prom with an affiliated boys' school, and the school seemed to think absolutely none of its well-bred and well-brought-up _ladies_ would ever _think_ of doing something so gauche as coming out as gay. Weiss, then in the most miserably closeted period of her adolescence, had thrown herself into planning and organizing the event in order to avoid talking with any of the boys, and then had feigned illness at the last minute to get out of actually attending. But she still had the dress her father had bought, as well as several other numbers.

Weiss glanced at the tickets sticking out of her purse, and the envy disappeared, replaced with a warm glow of anticipation. _Tonight, I'm making up for lost chances. Bless you, Pyrrha._ She consulted her navigation app, then tapped out a reply. _**Sounds great. I'll pick you up at 6ish for dinner and dancing.**_

The reply came back instantly. _**You're mine, princess.**_

Weiss grinned, dropped her phone into a bag, and started yanking her clothes on. Suddenly, she didn't mind losing nearly as much.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For poly CFVY you can thank Tumblr user theivorytowercrumbles.
> 
> As to the results, everyone predicted that Vale would win. That was probably obvious, but it was in my plan all along - it was necessary for Plot Reasons. Which will become clear in future parts.  
> Buckle up.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Weiss takes Ruby out on a date, as they agreed back in Chapter 7. Warnings for much fluffiness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is, to some extent, a White Rose shipper's wish-fulfillment after the disappointments of the dance episodes in Season 2. Forgive me my indulgences, and enjoy the fluff.

Ruby Rose stood at her bedroom window and looked out into the alley with narrowed eyes. Weiss wasn't here yet, but she would be soon. The spring sky was bruising as the sun sank toward the horizon, and the alley was already shadowed. The darkness would spread upward all too soon, as the day died in crimson fire.

For at least the eighteenth time since winning, she ran her thumb along the edge of her phone and considered texting Weiss, calling the whole thing off. She'd had doubts about this bet and its forfeit since the idea had landed on her, in a flash of mingled lust and rage and shame, as if a whole cloud's worth of rain had fallen on her soul at once. _All right,_ Ruby, _she thought, you wanted to leave the melodrama behind with your goth phase._

She touched the breast of her jacket and felt the rectangle of paper within shift slightly as lights flashed at the top of the alley. Since she'd finished dressing and took up station at the window, three times lights had flashed at either side of the alley, and three times she'd been disappointed. Her hand went to her phone, resting on the windowsill, and composed a suitable text. **Can't go tonight - sick** , or honesty in plain blunt style, **tonight's off**.

A sleek, low-slung sports car purred into the little parking lot and parked. After a moment, Ruby's phone buzzed in her hand, but she was already in motion toward the door, before she was aware she'd made a decision. _Let's give Weiss one more chance. See if a leopard can change its spots._

Ruby slid her phone into her rarely-used clutch purse, gave herself a last inspection in the mirror, and popped out the door. Yang and Ned were still out celebrating with the team, and Ruby had already written a note on the fridge - **Going out on a date. Have phone, will text w/ updates. Love.**

Ruby closed the door before Sun could follow her out into the wide fascinating world, locked the door, and used the precious moment of delay while she put her keys back into her clutch to compose her features into a mysterious, reserved smile. A smile worthy of Weiss, teeth hidden but ready.

Then she turned and walked to the car.

###

Her fingers picking nervously at the edge of her phone even though she'd just sent her text, Weiss stared out at Ruby's apartment. Ruby had texted that she would wear her prom dress, but Ruby had little sense or care for fashion, and she'd gone to prom at a decidedly middle-class, public high school - who knew what her prom dress looked like? Weiss braced herself for the most outrageous overdone confection of lace and taffeta, probably all fire-engine red, that would just wash out Ruby's gorgeous black hair and silver eyes, while Ruby looked most gorgeous in nothing but her lovely skin.

Weiss had leapt into action after the game, pulling a gown out of the back of her closet that she'd been given back in Omaha and only worn once, a gown that she'd packed to California three years before 'just in case.' Sky-blue silk wrapped around her bodice in a strapless sheath, fading into an ice-blue fall of layered skirts that fell to her ankles. She'd added elbow-length white gloves, a silk shawl that matched the skirt, and a white handbag. She'd vacillated over jewelry for a long time before selecting a single subdued pearl choker, and the matching earrings. She'd been tempted to pick her showiest, most expensive pieces, but had feared overwhelming or intimidating Ruby with an ostentatious show of wealth. Pyrrha and Weiss had dithered with her hair for almost as long before arranging it in a single long white ponytail from the right side of her crown, held in place with a hairpin that went with her necklace and earrings.

Weiss' target door opened, and a slender figure was briefly silhouetted against the rectangle of light in the doorframe. Weiss' heart began going a mile a minute, and she forced herself to stare down at her phone rather than peer into the night like some kind of stalker, but what she'd seen started a sick fire of dread in Weiss' belly. _Is she wearing pants?_ The thought made her grind her teeth in frustration and foreboding, picturing showing up at the door with Ruby in jeans and t-shirt, and being turned away from the Lavender Ball.

The Ruby of the pancakes and pillows, she thought, would have found a ballgown at her request, or even made one from duct tape or something; how typical of the Ruby of the storm to wear jeans to a formal dance, just to get her petty little digs at Weiss.

Since making the bet with Ruby, Weiss had found herself imagining their future together, maybe eventually bringing Ruby home to her family, when she finally felt secure and ready and confident enough to come out and reveal her true self to her family. Late at night, Weiss pictured herself meeting Ruby the Mistral student, or Ruby the track star, with no trace or possibility of rivalry between them, and the whirlwind romance that could have been, and tried to blink back the hot stinging tears that leaked from her eyes.

A hollow thump sounded on the car roof, and Wiess looked up to see Ruby's silhouette bent to peer in the passenger-side window, details washed out the the streetlights behind her. Weiss stared for a moment in bafflement, then realized her car doors were still locked, and slapped the control to unlock the doors. Ruby opened the door, the dome light came on, and Weiss' mouth went dry as she took in Ruby's midnight-black slacks and tuxedo jacket, maroon vest, scarlet blouse, and neat black bow tie, with the shimmer of some jewelry at the Vixen's throat. Just like in the locker room at Vale, Weiss' mouth ran ahead of her faltering brain. "I thought you'd be wearing a dress," she snapped, then immediately regretted it. Instead of backtracking her mental diarrhea, or waiting for her brain to catch up, Weiss' mouth went on, "You said you'd be wearing your prom dress. Did something happen?"

"This is what I wore to prom," Ruby smirked, and Weiss forgot how to make words for a moment, picturing Ruby on a dance floor, wearing _that_. The Vixen brushed her hair back from her ear, and Weiss saw a little red stud earring, red glass blown into the shape of a rose. The theme continued from the rose appliques on Ruby's flats to the cufflinks on her blazer to the silver rose pinned to the knot of her bowtie, which spread chains to the lapels of her jacket, tracing the invisible line of Ruby's collarbones. "For about an hour," Ruby went on, as she climbed into the passenger seat and closed the door, "And then I ditched to go get ice cream with Yang and her friends."

The dome light went out as the door closed, and Weiss' brain restarted with a lurch. She fumbled with her phone's navigation program, calling up a route to the Mistral waterfront to the south. Ruby asked with a crooked smirk in her voice, "So, doesn't going out dancing interfere with being in the closet?"

"I hope not," Weiss said, feeling closer to the conversations she had rehearsed on the drive to Ruby's apartment. At the end of the alley, Weiss pulled the tickets from her purse and handed them to Ruby.

Ruby used her phone as a flashlight to read the tickets, and Weiss suppressed a smug smile when her date burst out, " _How_ did you get tickets to the Lavender Ball? How much money did you throw at them?"

"I didn't have to; my roommate has connections," Weiss said as she turned the corner, following the instructions of her phone.

"Damn, you have rich-people powers. I am impressed," Ruby said, bouncing up and down in her seat. Weiss came to a stop at a red light, and the taillights of the truck ahead cast a bloody glare on Ruby's face as her grin fell and set into a bitter scowl. "If this isn't some dirty trick like our first date."

Weiss winced in regret again. Ruby would probably never let that go, unless Weiss apologized. She opened her mouth to confess her feelings, but stopped. Such a thing required careful planning and timing, and the moment was not right. Instead, she said evenly, "If it is, then my roommate will have a lot to answer for. But… that is not Pyrrha's style."

"No, just yours," Ruby bit out, and slid the tickets into her jacket pocket. Her face softened. "I'm still impressed, though. I've wanted to go to the Lavender Ball since I was in high school, but it was never near me, or I was too busy. It's - it's kind of a big deal. I mean, there's a lot of parties for queer people in this town, but the Lavender Ball has _history_ behind it, y'know?" The light turned green, and the taillights of the truck subsided to sullen embers, returning shadow to Ruby's face.

"Well, Pyrrha's boyfriend is playing music tonight. I'll point him out, so you can let him know if you have any requests. His sister's one of the organizers, so he got the tickets."

"Huh," Ruby said, her voice light and distant, "I'll have to thank him."

Weiss rubbed at her face to smooth away her own smirk. _You may spit and snark, Ruby, but you can't stay mad at me; you're too cheerful for that._

###

Weiss' phone directed them to the Mistral waterfront, far to the south of both the university and Vale College. After Weiss paid for parking, a parking attendant pointed them through vast empty spaces, black asphalt plains lit by blue-white lights. "Well, it's somewhere around here…"

"Keep going straight, head for the white dome," Ruby said, smirking at Weiss' geographic uncertainty.

"White dome?" Weiss asked. She could see it, in the distance, beyond the ranks and ranks of lights. At a crossroads where four parking lots met, Weiss fought the fear that she was lost, and resisted the temptation to turn around, urging her to take every path at once. Instead, she rolled through the intersection, aiming her car toward the dome. "Have you been here before?"

"The _Queen Anne_? They have a haunted house every year," Ruby said with a big grin. "Yang has worked for their Halloween haunted house for a couple years. And we toured it for a school field trip, once. It's a local landmark." Ruby pointed out the windshield at a sign. "There, looks like they've got valet parking."

Weiss nodded and turned into the driveway in front of a low building, and drove up to a hulking valet, standing at the foot of a long lavender carpet. Signs all over warned that photography was forbidden, with dire penalties. Couples of men and women, in tuxedos and gowns regardless of gender presentation, walked up the carpet into a white stucco building that seemed far too small for the size of the crowd.

Ruby opened the door and climbed out, and Weiss found herself staring transfixed until Ruby shut the door and blocked the view. Weiss shook herself, summoned the memory of her father, and climbed out of the car, tossing the keys to the waiting valet as if she did this every night. She wanted to look sophisticated and elegant to Ruby, not reveal the trepidation and uncertainty and regret that swirled in her stomach and ate at her heart.

Weiss stepped around the car's hood and up onto the curb, watching Ruby's reaction under her lashes. Ruby turned to face Weiss, then stopped, her silver eyes flickering up and down Weiss' gown. Weiss turned slightly, letting the lights catch and illuminate the tiny silver glitter embedded in the fabric of her gown, and was gratified when Ruby's eyes widened, her mouth falling slightly open. "I… wow, you look really good, Weiss."

"Thank you," Weiss said, smiling demurely at her date and hiding the way her heart beat at double speed to be so close to this handsome woman. She'd picked silver closed-toed shoes with wedge heels that would put her height equal to Ruby's, and as she looked into Ruby's eyes, Weiss was very satisfied that she hadn't picked the heels that would make her even taller.

Another car pulled up to the curb, and Ruby gave their tickets to another waiting attendant and put her elbow out awkwardly to Weiss. "Shall we?"

"Sure," Weiss said, took Ruby's arm. It should have been laughably awkward, but Weiss felt utterly comfortable in a stream of other couples, mostly older men and women, who glanced at them with amusement. She should have resented the twinkling smiles and chuckles, the quiet and not-so-quiet comments passed from mouth to ear, but she felt _right_ , in a way she didn't feel very often, almost never outside of the locker room. The idea of a community, a place where she was _safe_ , where she _belonged_. With a gorgeous girl on her arm…

Weiss smiled at Ruby as they passed out of the building, following the lavender carpet up a broad ramp… Weiss' brain stopped at the base of the ramp as she looked up at the enormous steel ship, like a palace turned on its side, sitting calmly at the other end of the ramp. Music filtered down from above, its source invisible beyond the bulk of metal. The white letters _Queen Anne_ caught the light from the lights on the dock, seemed to float away from the flat black hull and hang suspended in the night.

"Pyrrha didn't mention this was a cruise… I haven't packed!" Weiss said, her mouth again outrunning her brain.

"It's not," Ruby said, pulling Weiss out of the way of a couple of elderly people wearing tuxedoes and leaning on a single cane with their joined hands. "It hasn't moved in like fifty years; it's a hotel and resort now. And sometimes it gets taken over for things like tonight."

"Oh. Wow." Weiss scrambled for her self-possession, and slipped her hand out of Ruby's elbow and around her date's waist, pressing herself against Ruby's firm side, filling her nose with Ruby's rose scent. "This is going to be fun."

"I hope so." Ruby covered Weiss' hand with her own, then pulled Weiss back into the stream of couples, where a couple of bearded people in matching ballgowns made way for them with grins and a gracious sweep of a beringed hand. Weiss nodded graceful thanks and walked arm-in-arm up the ramp with Ruby, feeling dizzy and light-headed, as if she were climbing to a cloud rather than a ship.

At the top of the ramp, the lavender carpet turned along the deck and into an enormous ballroom, shining with light from crystal chandeliers and the mirrored walls. A vast dance floor was surrounded by dozens of little lavender-clothed tables, each with between two and four chairs. Weiss flashed back to her own high-school prom, and blessed Pyrrha once again.

"Oh, wow," Ruby whispered, sparkles and stars in her silver eyes.

"I thought you'd been here before," Weiss snarked back, then immediately wished she could take it back.

"I was focused on the lower desks, the engineering spaces and all the cool stuff that made it go way back when it, y'know, went." Ruby looked around the ballroom at the lavender and rainbows decorating everything like a fairy-tale ball, and took Weiss' hand in an almost painfully tight grip. "Not like this. Let's get a table, princess."

They sat at a table with two chairs, at the edge of the dance floor, and Weiss asked, "So your school let you wear a tuxedo to prom? Mine never let us think it was an option."

Ruby nodded, then broke off as a server came to deliver them menus for the banquet portion of the evening. "They did; it wasn't a big deal. We're a lot more tolerant out here than you middle-of-the-country people. Now, you went to a girls' school; how did a prom work there?"

"There was a boys' school in the next town over," Weiss said, stung by Ruby's condescending tone. Omaha hadn't been near the size or complexity of Mistral, but it hadn't been a one-street village either. "We joined together with them to have a prom in a big church. I helped organize; it was pretty small and tame." Weiss glanced around the ballroom, estimating with trained eyes. "It was about a third this size, I'd say. Two hundred people, tops."

"Oh wow, that's small. I think my senior class was close to seven hundred people," Ruby said. "And we grouped our prom with two other schools, to get a better deal... " Ruby shook her head. "Too many people, too many people I didn't know, so… yeah, after an hour of that I slipped out and went for ice cream with Yang."

"Yang's very good to you," Weiss said, remembering the warmth between the sisters when she had been a guest in their home. She concealed a shiver at the memory of the confrontation with Yang in the morning, when Pyrrha had saved her from a beating or worse. "She obviously cares about you a great deal."

"She still wants to kill you," Ruby said cheerfully after a waiter came over and departed with their orders.

"She tried," Weiss said. At Ruby's raised eyebrows, Weiss went on, "The Monday after our date, she found me at Mistral. My roommate stopped her before she could beat the crap out of me."

"That's… really impressive." Ruby breathed, her eyes wide. "How did she manage to do that?"

"It's hard to say," Weiss said. "Pyrrha put herself between Yang and me, mostly, and revealed that she was a Marine. I guess Yang was intimidated."

"Ha!" Ruby barked a dark laugh, and shrugged. "Ned was too, and I've seen them spar. More like your friend got Yang to stop and _think_ for a moment. She kinda raised me in a big way, after… my mom died." Ruby shrugged and said, "She still wants to beat the crap out of you."

"Felt like she did, during the game," Weiss said. At Ruby's questioning look, she said, "Yang was playing pretty rough during the game, whenever she could get away with it. In the second half, the rest of your teammates got in on the act I feel like I've been bruised all over."

"All over, huh?" Ruby's eyebrows wiggled up and down, and Weiss' rejoinder was stifled by a waiter bearing plates. "I _might_ have mentioned your little Mata Hari ploy to my teammates."

"How dare-" Ruby cast a sweetly questioning look over her chicken at Weiss, brows raised, and Weiss swallowed the rest of the sentence. "Well. That explains a lot."

"Mhmm." Ruby applied herself to her chicken and rice. "I'd apologize for that, but… you deserved it. I think my whole team wants to beat the shit out of you."

"Mm," Weiss hummed, and swirled her ice water around in its glass while she thought. For once, she needed to compose a sentence as carefully as possible. Her stomach was still filled with dancing butterflies with their wings dripping stomach acid, and only a hundred excruciating social events under her father's wing and at boarding school allowed her to choke down her swordfish without showing any sign of her discomfort. "And you?" She kept the question light and airy, as if asking about the weather.

"I'm still rather pissed at you," Ruby said, just as lightly, then slowly looked around the ballroom. "But you… you have your uses."

"I _thought_ this would be a good idea," Weiss said smugly, following Ruby's gaze to take in the enormous, beautiful space where nobody _cared_ that she was sitting eating dinner with another girl. Weiss was reminded or a moment of black-tie business functions that she'd been dragged to in her father's wake, as he displayed his heiress to the wolves in suits that were perpetually circling, seeking to take his position away by any means necessary. There, she was insignificant because she had nothing they wanted or feared; here, she was unnoticed because she _belonged_ here. Weiss felt an odd liberation in the feeling, akin to standing on the scrimmage line, a moment where the world narrowed to clear and simple goals, which hinged on _her_ performance, rather than relying on agricultural output or Asian exchange rates or the correct performance of the social media department. Weiss took a sip of her ice water and looked across the table at Ruby, seeing an opponent on an entirely different field, where her goal was to negotiate the outcome Weiss knew they both wanted, rather than convincing her opponent to give up.

Weiss smiled, and veered the conversation into small things with a question about Ruby's classes while they ate. Ruby's eyes met with hers for a moment, and Weiss remembered Ruby in the rain, shouting in Weiss' face, the rage and contempt in those beautiful silver eyes. The memory of that anger still twisted Weiss' stomach, but now she knew it for short-lived bluster, and Weiss held close to the memory of soft and loving Ruby in bed, the true Ruby under the angry facade. With her cheeks heating, Weiss leaned forward, set down her glass, and cleared her throat.

Ruby looked up from her plate, and Weiss was about to make a more formal apology, but a loud _THUMP_ from the direction of the bandstand drew their attention. A blond in a tuxedo and tails lay sprawled across the bandstand, then pushed himself up, waved off offers of assistance from his fellow musicians, and picked up a battered but lovely acoustic guitar from a stand next to the stage. The guitar triggered Weiss' memory, even as she cursed the interruption to her apology. "That's Pyrrha's boyfriend," Weiss said.

"Huh, I guess they're starting the dancing," Ruby said distantly, with an odd longing look on her face as Jaune settled on a stool on the bandstand and started playing a tune. The rest of the musicians gathered around joined in, and the strains and rhythms of a waltz filled the room.

Weiss swallowed her apology for a better moment, stood, and extended a hand to Ruby. "May I have this dance?"

Ruby jolted upright in her chair and shook her head, as couples all around stood and mingled, or made their way to the dance floors. "I'm sorry… I don't know how."

"You learned to play handball, you can learn how to dance. Come on," Weiss cajoled.

"I dunno," Ruby looked around, eyes hidden under her scarlet bangs and her head pulling into her collar, but her hand crumpled her napkin into a messy ball, her knuckles white against the dark purple cloth. "Maybe… not where there are people."

Weiss bent down so she could see Ruby's eyes and the slight tinge of pink rising in her date's cheeks. "One dance. I _know_ you have good rhythm, and I know you can learn."

Ruby's eyes locked with hers for a single, heart-stopping moment, then dropped to the napkin, and Weiss made an effort to smile winningly. "Or we can go back to the hotel."

Remembering the terms of the bet, Weiss suppressed the automatic tantrum and took a milder tactic, the shy, slightly pouty smile that usually got whatever she wanted out of her father. "Sure, but… my body's all seized up from your brutal teammates." That at least won a glance, and a twitch of Ruby's lip. "A dance or two is just what I need to limber up, otherwize I'm going to be _cramping_ so hard, I'm going to be all _stiff_ , and-" Weiss leaned forward, touched her lips to the tip of Ruby's nose, and grinned as the faint flush on Ruby's cheeks deepened - "Not _at all_ good for you."

"You are so full of shit, Princess," Ruby husked through a grin that matched Weiss'. "But you're on. Let's see if rich-girl school taught you anything." She pushed herself up and took Weiss' hand.

"Don't worry Ruby, I'm an excellent teacher!" Weiss laughed as Ruby towed her in the direction of the dance floor, with no hesitation or uncertainty in those broad shoulders or straight back.

"I should warn you, Weiss," Ruby said over her shoulder as they went, "the last time I tried to dance, twerking was involved."

Weiss felt her face go bright red with the heat of a sun, and she had to fight to keep her mind on her feet, and not on the mental images produced by _that_ comment.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, deliberately place cliffhangers? Preposterous!  
> The date went on for so many words, and is so important to the plot, I decided to extend it over several chapters. Enjoy.  
> The Lavender Ball as I describe it is made up out of whole cloth, but the Queen Anne is loosely based on a real ship, the Queen Mary, which is a floating hotel/conference center/tourist attraction in Long Beach, south of Los Angeles. Given the long history and large LGBT community in my home megalopolis, there are a LOT of LGBT-centered events, including various Imperial Courts, but to my knowledge and research the Lavender Ball isn't one, and is not representative of any single event, just a melange of things thrown together into one event where Weiss and Ruby could be themselves.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the risk of spoilers, warnings for some suicidal ideation and depair. Please be careful if you're vulnerable to such triggers and know your limits.

Ruby towed Weiss to the back corner of the dance floor, turned, and said, "Okay, teach me."

Weiss shook her head at Ruby's whipsawing between shy and bold, and she stepped forward to take Ruby's right hand and guide it to her shoulder. Ruby's hands, Weiss was pleased to note, were fairly close to right - not clammy in her hand nor crushing her shoulder, nor too light as if it were about to fly away. Weiss put her own hand around Ruby's back and pulled her partner close. Ruby smiled shyly, and Weiss' heart lifted as she felt her muscles fall into the familiar well-trained patterns of a waltz, leading Ruby through the patterns. Ruby's eyes fell to Weiss' feet far more than they rose to her face, and Ruby's feet broke the pattern and got tangled and landed on Weiss' toes, but her hand on Weiss' shoulder never wavered, and as the music went on, Ruby kept time better, and the corners of her mouth twitched higher. At the third dance, Weiss took a chance and pulled her date closer, until her nose and Ruby's were almost touching. "You've done this before," Weiss whispered.

"Yeah," Ruby whispered back, "but it's been a long, long time." Ruby's eyes glittered through lowered eyelashes. "In middle school, Dad made us sign up for some ballroom dance thing, it wasn't fun because I was growing and tripped over my own feet." Ruby's mouth twisted down. "And the boys all acted like I had leprosy, but I thought it was just me until Yang pointed out they treated all the girls that way. I joined track to get away from… all that."

Weiss leaned forward and pressed her lips to the plunging corner of Ruby's mouth. "Well, I couldn't ask for a better partner," she breathed, concealing how the last word made her heart leap in her chest. At the next beat, she stepped back and extended Ruby into a graceful spin, and when Ruby returned to her arms, her grin made Weiss' heart lift like a flower opening its face to the sun.

Weiss jerked her chin up and returned the grin fiercely as she swept Ruby into the next pattern. "And twerking?"

Ruby's hand slipped beneath Weiss' shawl and warm fingertips played a tattoo on her bare shoulder. "Yang… starts things. I wasn't very good at that either."

Weiss leaned close, to breathe into that infernally cute ear, "Maybe you can teach me?"

Ruby tilted her head and whispered into Weiss' hair, "Not here."

"Of course not," Weiss grinned. "Back at the hotel?"

The hand on her shoulder drifted down her chest, and a thumb slid across the top of Weiss' gown, stoking the fire that smoldered in her gut. _Later_ , Weiss promised her libido.

Eventually, the music shifted into a faster tango, and Ruby pleaded thirst and ignorance for a break. They collected sodas at the bar and walked out through an open door onto the deck, to lean against the rail and look out on the rainbow lights of the container yard and the city beyond, spreading like a carpet of stars toward the mountains. Weiss shivered in the breeze, but when Ruby asked, "Want to go inside?" Weiss shook her head, not willing to leave the display of jewels in the night for the hot, crowded ballroom, but she wished she'd brought a jacket instead of a light shawl.

Ruby smiled, and something about the smile seemed sad, or maybe it was the dim lights from the port. She set her drink on the rail, pulled off her jacket - Weiss' attention was torn from the beauty of the lights, watching Ruby move and remembering those lovely muscles - and wrapped it around Weiss' shoulders. "Thank you," Weiss murmured, taking a discreet inhalation of lovely rose scent as she pulled it tight. "You're a good person, Ruby."

Ruby gave a dismissive wave of her hand as she reclaimed her drink and leaned on the rail next to Weiss. Weiss glanced around - the nearest people were a couple forty feet down the rail, clearly engrossed in each other - and realized she would never get a better opportunity than this. "I'm sorry… things didn't work out. The first time."

"They could have worked out, if you'd bothered to try," Ruby muttered bitterly, and Weiss winced.

"We were opponents then," Weiss said, holding onto her patience with all her will. Only Ruby, she thought, could move her from bliss to wrath with a handful of words. She stared down into her drink, and watched the light reflected from the city warp and twist its way through the bubbles. "I had obligations. I regret that it happened as much as you do."

"I really doubt that," Ruby spat.

" _Look_ ," Weiss bit out, "I can't walk away from being a Maiden handball player. Coach Fall gave me… gave me too much I can't repay." Comradeship, friends, a few precious hours' escape from the iron maiden of being a Schnee… Victories that were all her own, not handed to her by her name.

"So you decided to play spy," Ruby sneered, "or was that your coach's idea too?"

"No, it was all mine," Weiss said. "And I'm very sorry you were so hurt and angry. I didn't mean it to be hurtful, I was just… trying to do the least damage I could."

"Oh, you didn't mean it to hurt, that makes it all better." Ruby growled, and crumpled her empty cup into a jagged wad of plastic. Weiss expected Ruby to throw the cup over the side, but Ruby turned and stalked away. Weiss started to follow anxiously, but when Ruby threw her cup in the trash can and turned back, Weiss returned to the rail as if she hadn't moved. "That's it?" Ruby asked. "You use me like that, and say it wasn't meant to hurt?"

"It won't happen again, I can promise that," Weiss snapped, and drained her drink to cool her anger. Now was a time for soothing ice, not angry fire. "I'd like to move forward, not back. As I said before, I'm graduating this year. I'm trying for the Olympics. We'll most likely never compete again. I know, things got really screwed up between us. But I like you, _really_ like you - you're charming, you're funny, and…" Weiss let her gaze trail appreciatively up and down Ruby, "you're _very_ beautiful." Weiss screwed up her courage, stepped close to Ruby, and wrapped her arm around the Vixen's waist. Ruby didn't try to escape Weiss' embrace, just looked at her with eyebrows slightly raised and a pink flush rising in her cheeks. Weiss brought her face close, kissably close, and looked into Ruby's lovely silver eyes. "I'd like to see where this goes, Ruby. How about it?"

Ruby's mouth opened slightly, and her eyes flashed. She leaned closer - Weiss closed her eyes...

The kiss never came, and Weiss opened her eyes to see Ruby standing straight, a finger between her lips and Weiss'. "I have to think about this," Ruby said, and Weiss bit her lip as her heart plunged. Ruby's eyes met Weiss', and the Vixen's lips thinned into a sad smile. "We'll talk back at the hotel room, huh?"

"Sure," Weiss said, and her heart lifted. She would have another chance to win Ruy over at the hotel room, and a warm glow of desire flared at the thought. "Do you want to go back now?"

Ruby looked away, past Weiss' shoulder, and the city lights twinkled in her eyes.  "No, not yet, this is… this is once in a lifetime." Ruby reclaimed her jacket, stepped back and offered Weiss her arm as the music from inside changed. "Shall we dance?"

"Sure," Weiss smiled shyly at her date, knowing she'd have her girl. Sooner or later, Ruby's sweet side would come out from behind her little irrational anger, and she'd quit blaming Weiss for circumstances beyond Weiss' control. And Weiss was looking forward to applying some… warm persuasion to shift Ruby's thinking. Weiss suspected a few orgasms would change Ruby's mindset a great deal, and Weiss had no doubt Ruby would say yes to her proposition. After all, it was what Ruby had wanted all along.

###

Two hours, many dances and a dessert course later, the Lavender Ball ended, and Weiss and Ruby joined the stream of people back to the valet. While waiting for a valet to bring her car around, Weiss took advantage of the crowd cover to slide a hand down Ruby's back, gathered her courage, and moved her hand down further, gently cupping her date's firm ass. Ruby half-turned and gave Weiss a dry look under her scarlet bangs, and Weiss returned a sunny smile. Ruby rolled her eyes, reached around Weiss' waist, pulled her close, and gave her a peck on the cheek.

Weiss pressed herself into Ruby's side, relishing the firm, steady mass of the athlete against her, and leaned her head against Ruby's shoulder. _I love you_ , she thought, though her mind shied from the word like the eye from a bright light. What other word could quite capture this feeling of joyous exhilaration, of having foolishly jumped out of an airplane without quite knowing whether or not her parachute would open? Love or lust, butterflies cavorted madly in her midsection, and her hands itched for the warm skin and toned muscle that she knew lay beneath the fine suit. Only the knowledge that she would soon unwrap that gift kept her hands from wandering obscenely in groping her date. _Is this how Ruby felt, bringing me home?_

Weiss' car pulled up to the curb, and she regretfully released Ruby to exchange a healthy tip for her keys. Weiss took the wheel and started the engine as Ruby slid into the passenger seat. Weiss followed a stream of other cars back to the entrance, then set her phone to navigate to the Forever Fall Inn. "Wow, that was fun," Weiss breathed, as she broke free of the parking lot and turned onto the street.

"It was," Ruby said, leaning her head against the window with her eyes half-lidded. Her voice sounded like she was speaking from down a well.

"Are you okay?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah," Ruby said as streetlights bathed her face in flashes of orange. "Just tired."

"I hope you're not too tired to take advantage of me," Weiss said in what she hoped was a sultry tone. At a stoplight, she let her fingertips dance up Ruby's thigh, and Ruby roused and smiled sleepily at her. Weiss had a sudden flash of imagining Ruby smiling like that, sleepy and seductive in the morning light, from amid a nest of blankets and pillows, just beckoning Weiss to join her... An irritated horn from behind alerted Weiss to the fact that the stoplight had turned green while she stared, and she paid scrupulously close attention to the road after that.

Following the instructions of her navigation app, Weiss turned into the parking ramp of the Forever Fall Inn and parked on the second floor. As they exited the car, Weiss started to take Ruby's hand, then stopped, feeling the walls of the closet close around her again. "Wait here, I'll text you with the room number."

"I-" Ruby stopped, and an unpleasant look of suspicion clouded her puppy-eyes.

"Remember our other condition," Weiss growled. "Going to check in together could out me. I'll go to the room and text you."

Ruby frowned, but stepped back from Weiss and nodded. "Move fast, princess, before security decides I'm a dashing, debonair car thief."

Weiss grabbed Ruby's lapel and pulled her close. "Dashing and debonair, you are. Car thief… don't go hot-wiring any cars, and they'll leave you alone. My little engineer."

"Don't you forget it," Ruby growled, her eyes glowing and a strange smile on her face. Weiss pushed her date back, before lust and adrenaline pushed her to some public indiscretion. Firmly, she marched down the ramp and into the hotel lobby to check in.

###

When Ruby knocked at the door of the room, Weiss opened the door, grabbed Ruby's collar, and yanked the Vixen into a passionate kiss. Ruby slammed the door closed behind her, then pulled Weiss back against the door, her strong hands groping and grasping at the body beneath Weiss' gown. Weiss moaned into Ruby's mouth, and ran her hands down Ruby's chest, her whole body electric with her pent-up lust, waiting to be unleashed.

When Weiss undid the first button on Ruby's blazer, Ruby pushed Weiss back, breaking their kiss. Weiss bit back a whine of disappointment at the intent look in Ruby's eyes. "Remember the terms of the bet? Who controls what happens now?"

Weiss nodded, and stepped back, though her hands itched for Ruby's body, the carefree exuberance of their first night together, but from the determined glint, Ruby clearly had Plans for tonight. "Yes?"

Ruby stepped past Weiss and walked around the room, inspecting the king-sized bed closely. "Yeah, I can work with this," she muttered as she fondled the corner posts. "I'll need some time to set things up," Ruby said to Weiss. "Wait in the bathroom for ten minutes, then come on out. I should be ready for you by then." Ruby smiled seductively over her shoulder at Weiss.

"Why?" Weiss stared at the bed in bafflement. _What could take that much -_ Weiss felt her face flush bright red as the memory of certain niche pornographies she'd seen flashed to the forefront of her memory. "Are you planning to -"

"It's a surprise." Ruby's grin, filled with mixed anticipation and venom, did not reassure Weiss. "You're not backing out on our bet, are you?"

"Of course not," Weiss snapped and pulled her phone out of her purse. "Ten minutes?"

"Yep. Start when you close the door," Ruby instructed firmly, "and no peeking!"

Weiss swallowed, walked to the bathroom and closed the door. Then she started the timer on her phone and settled in for a wait.

###

Ruby sighed deeply and closed her eyes as the bathroom door closed behind her. Her hands tightened on the corner post until the wood groaned under her white-knuckled fingers. With an effort, Ruby released her hands' strangling tension, cracked her knuckles, and pulled a hand-sized cream envelope from the inside pocket of her jacket.

She turned it so Weiss' name in her square handwriting was facing her, then tossed it onto the foot of the bed. Ruby glanced at the door, whispered, "Good riddance," and walked out of the hotel room.

Out in the hallway, Ruby rubbed at her face, straightened her bowtie and her jacket, pulled her phone out of her purse, then started walking down the hall toward the elevators. **On my way home now** , she texted Yang.

###

When the countdown on her phone reached zero, Weiss opened the bathroom door and raced out into the hotel room. Her imagination and her libido had conjured many possible and impossible scenarios, but nothing prepared her for the empty hotel room, completely devoid of Ruby.

"Ruby?" Weiss called out, checking every corner of the room for Ruby-shaped surprises. Then she noticed the small envelope resting on the maroon bedspread, and picked it up. It bore the name **WEISS** in square hand-drawn letters.

Weiss frowned. What was the Vixen doing? Was Ruby planning on playing hide-and-seek? _If she wants to play games, there are many better games we can play without leaving the room,_ Weiss thought as she opened the envelope, extracted a card and opened it.

For a long moment, Weiss' brain refused to process the letters, written in the same neat, square hand.

**Doesn't it just suck when someone uses you and leaves you alone?**

Then the words penetrated, and Weiss nearly tore the card apart looking for another message, a **just kidding!** or instructions to decode the message that couldn't be real. When she'd turned the card over enough to be certain it bore no secret messages, she snatched up the envelope and nearly tore it to shreds looking for another message, answers, explanations, anything to cushion the blow of the card.

As the envelope came apart in her fingers, Weiss collapsed at the foot of the bed and burst into wracking sobs that seemed to come from her core, and forced her breath through a throat painfully constricted. A single thought rose through the storm of bewildered confusion in her mind: _Is this how she felt?_

She seized on that thought, the only steady point in the chaos whipping her soul, like a drowning woman clinging to a door. This is how Ruby felt, said a voice in the back of her mind that sounded like her father, ruthless and exacting.

Weiss pressed her tear-soaked hands to her ears, but the voice went on relentlessly. _Dammit, Weiss, you left yourself open. This is your just desserts. You didn't think she was actually attracted to you, did you?_

Weiss moaned in pain, and doubled over as if she'd been stabbed in the stomach. _I did this, I did this, I did this I did this I did this_ , said the endless drumbeat of the voice in her brain, in time with her sobs, _and I'll never be able to fix it._

 _Never?_ another voice asked. Weiss fell over on her side, her daydreams of building a life together with Ruby flashing before her mind's eye before shattering and flaying her with their jagged edges. If even _Ruby_ , the sweetest, most positive person Weiss had ever met, couldn't stand Weiss, then she'd be alone forever, with nobody to share her burdens or soothe her pains…

...and she'd be better off dead. She was six floors up...

Trembling and sobbing, Weiss dragged her thoughts off their track with difficulty, but she at least knew the road back to sanity from that place on the edge of nothingness, the road from will-to-oblivion to will-to-live. She'd had to walk up it many times in her youth, when her father continually drove her to be better, never satisfied with anything short of perfect performance.

Weiss rolled onto her back and spread her arms to take hold of the thick plush carpet, as if to anchor her to the floor. Another thought penetrated the sobbing: _I need help, or I'm going to break altogether. I need help now._

Somehow she found her phone in her hand, and her fingers picked a contact without any input from her brain. The phone on the other end rang for a long time before a voice answered, calling from the depths of sleep, "Weiss? What?"

Only then did Weiss' eyes flick to the time display showing it was just after midnight, and she winced internally. _Great going, Weiss._

 _Keep going, or stop existing,_ her experience told her. She chose, and drove herself up the road demanded by her choice. "I -" she forced through a throat thick with tears, "I need help."

"Is anyone hurt?" Pyrrha's voice came back, instantly awake and intent. Faint rustling sounds filtered back over the phone.

"I-" Weiss almost said _I'm hurt, I'm wounded, I'm broken, I'm bleeding in my soul_ , but that wasn't what Pyrrha was asking. "No. I'm just - " The words tore from her choked voicebox in a sobbing rush, " _she left._ She left and I'm-" She couldn't finish.

"Okay," Pyrrha said, and Weiss clung to the calm, steady assurance in that voice, "Where are you?"

"The hotel… the… um… Forever Fall Inn," Weiss managed, clinging with both hands and all her remaining will to the calm, steady assurance in that voice. "Room… room… room… six-oh-four."

"I'm on my way," Pyrrha said. More rustling, and the click of a door being closed. "Stay on the line, I'll be there in about twenty or thirty minutes, depending on how the bus goes."

"I- I'm sorry," Weiss managed, her body curling over her knees. "I just-"

" _Weiss_ ," Pyrrha said, and the tone of her voice snapped Weiss's back straight in automatic response, " _do not apologize for this._ You need me, I am coming, that's all there is to it."

"Thank you," Weiss sniffled. "I fucked up, I f-fucked up, and I don't d-deserve you-"

"You are my friend, so you do deserve me," Pyrrha said, with that same absolute assurance. "Is anyone dead?"

 _Just me, almost,_ Weiss thought, then shoved the thought away. She had Pyrrha, Pyrrha was coming, and she clung to that. "N-no."

"Then it can be fixed," Pyrrha sighed. "Aha, the bus is here. Talk to me, Weiss; tell me what happened."

Weiss rubbed at her face, whipping her thoughts into some kind of order. "Well, I picked her up -"

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of Sporting has been improvised on the spot, but that last bit was a touchstone I've been wanting to get to from the beginning. By this, I'd estimate that we're 50-70% of the way through the story. So this is not the end of Sporting, but a necessary midpoint.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for a really quite abusive conversation with authority near the end of the chapter.

** *PART 12* **

  
  


When Weiss opened the door for Pyrrha, her eyes hurt from weeping and her chest felt like it had been emptied out. Pyrrha came in, closed the door, dropped her bag, and carefully pulled Weiss into a hug. "I'm so sorry, Weiss," she whispered. 

"Not your fault," Weiss rasped. She glanced down at Pyrrha's feet and noticed the bag wasn't her roommates' usual red messenger bag, but a plain black backpack. "Is that my emergency pack?" she asked.

"It is," Pyrrha said, hefting the backpack she and Weiss had packed after Weiss had moved into the dorm, 'just in case.' "Sorry; I figured you'd want to change, maybe take a shower, before we go back."

"I do, thanks," Weiss said, took the bag, and headed for the bathroom. With a pang of regret, she stripped off the elegant gown and draped it carefully across the toilet. As she started the shower and set it cold, Weiss remembered her intense erotic daydreams of Ruby stripping the gown off her, and choked back a sob. Her head hurt. Her eyes hurt. Her heart hurt.

Under the shower, Weiss scrubbed at her skin as if she could wash off the feeling of shame, but she couldn't get at the aching, dirty shell wrapped around her heart. When she looked down and saw blood leaking from a scratch on her chest dug by her fingernails, Weiss balled her hands into fists, leaned her head against the cold tile of the shower, and tried to summon her detachment, the walls of ice around her heart that had gotten her through high school and college so far.

The shower beeped in warning, then shut off as it reached the end of its water-conserving five-minute timer. Warm air buffeted at her water-chilled skin, and Weiss' gasp echoed back at her from all directions like a whisper campaign. She felt herself sliding down the tile, and she straightened her spine, pushed herself away from the wall, and stepped out of the shower. She rubbed herself with a hotel towel until her skin felt like it would come off, but the shame remained, etched into her bones.

_ So I go on,  _ she told herself, as she dressed in plain jeans and T-shirt from the go-bag. She emerged from the bathroom to find Pyrrha standing by the foot of the bed, holding the card and frowning. "I probably don't have a chance of making it up to her, do I?" Weiss asked, her voice coming out cracked and creaky as old wood.

"It's pretty unambiguous, yeah," Pyrrha said. "I… didn't think Ruby was capable of this level of… cruelty."

"I told you, I fucked up." Weiss sat on the bed. "I did the same thing the first time. I tried to apologize, say I didn't mean to hurt her, but I guess it didn't take. I… I wanted to try and date her, after the tournament… but I guess that isn't an option."

"I hate to ask…" Pyrrha said hesitantly. "What... happened? On your first date? Yang was… very angry, was that just because you banged her sister or… was there something more?"

"I…" Weiss hunched down, wishing she could pull her head into her shirt, or hide under the bed, but she had asked her friend to help - Pyrrha deserved to know about her mistakes. "After we… well, did it, she fell asleep, and I slipped out. So she's kind of... justified?"

Pyrrha started to snap, "And yo-" She stopped midword and snapped her mouth shut, trapping whatever she'd been about to say behind her teeth.

But Weiss had heard the rest of the question in her tone of voice. "And why did I do that?" She shrugged as Pyrrha stared. "I asked her out on impulse. I have no idea what I was thinking, hell, I'd just asked some  _ opponent  _ out, I was all  _ what the hell _ ?" Weiss sighed. "After she said yes, I justified it by thinking… whatever I could learn about Ruby, about the Vixens… would make it easier to win the next time."

"Why would you need to justify it? To who?" Pyrrha's tone was carefully non-judgmental.

"To Coach." Weiss looked down between her knees at the bland carpet. "I… going out with Ruby felt like a betrayal unless… we  _ had  _ to win the tournament. After we got beat that way, we -  _ I  _ \- couldn't let some community college tromp on top of us to the Pacific Championship. You do what you have to do to win, right?"

"You sound like Coach," Pyrrha said in a flat, disapproving voice.

Weiss looked up at Pyrrha and forestalled her captain's apology with a raised hand. "You don't like Coach, at all. Why are you still on the team?"

"Therapy," Pyrrha spread her hands. "After my last deployment… I had issues. When I was in the Corps, I could handle them, but getting out… I do better if I have a unit, a team, an 'us.' It keeps me stable. I joined the handball team because it worked with my schedule. By the time I realized what Fall is, I had everybody else. And I didn't want to leave the rest of you."

"What do you mean, what Fall is? She's a champion," Weiss said, stung.

"She does whatever she wants to win," Pyrrha said evenly, but Weiss heard the volcanic rumble of anger under her captain's voice. "That's one thing if you're trying to win a war, or keep people alive, but she's trying to accumulate shiny bits of metal. But she's pushing us like it's a matter of life and death. Like the way she was hounding Julia after the game."

Weiss nodded slowly. "Ruby… on our first date, said something similar. She was a track star in high school, but gave it up because it was more about accumulating prizes than doing good." 

Understanding flashed in Pyrrha's eyes, and she sat on the bed next to Weiss. "Is that so? I wish I'd spent as much time with her as you have; we'd probably be friends if I could avoid beating her face in."

Weiss' head snapped up at Pyrrha's angry tone. "Why are you angry? This is all my fault." She remembered a moment from the game, when she'd caught Ruby staring at her with loathing in her eyes, and renewed shame ripped through Weiss' heart.  _ I did that _ , Weiss thought, and she felt utterly filthy.

"No, it's not," Pyrrha growled. "I mean, you hurt her, no question-"

"Thanks," Weiss snarled, but Pyrrha's condemnation made her feel somehow better, like it confirmed Weiss' guilt.

"-but she made the decision to hurt you too," Pyrrha went on, holding up the envelope. "This… this was premeditated. And that was cruel. She hurt my friend, so I'm rather angry at her."

"No better than I deserved," Weiss said, her shoulders sagging.

"No, it isn't," Pyrrha said firmly and shook the envelope, making it snap in the air. "What you  _ deserved _ , frankly, was a flat 'no' in the first place. That would have ended things without the need for  _ this _ ."

In lieu of reply, Weiss flopped back on the bed. She didn't have the energy to argue. "Want to go home now?" Pyrrha asked.

"No," Weiss sighed. "I just checked in an hour ago. Checking out now would be noticed. I'll just check out in the morning."

"Up to you," Pyrrha said. After a pause, she asked, in a softer voice, "Want me to leave?"

"No," Weiss shook her head. The bed seemed to be swallowing Weiss into its softness.

"There's a couch in the corner, I'll be okay," Pyrrha said from outside Weiss' field of view.

Weiss made the effort to lift her head from the enveloping covers, and located Pyrrha, standing over the white leather couch with a skeptical look. "C'mere, we can share the bed if you want, it's sure big enough. Remember that roadtrip up to wine country, when they didn't have rooms with two beds?"

"Sure." Pyrrha turned and looked at Weiss with a smile of wistful remembrance.

Weiss maneuvered herself into only taking up half the bed, and wriggled under the covers. When Pyrrha climbed into bed next to her, Weiss reached out and turned off the light, and darkness filled the room.

Weiss tried to let the bed drag her across the veil of dreams, but the memory of flashing silver eyes held her to consciousness. As Pyrrha's breathing settled into the soft rhythms of sleep, Weiss gave up and stared into the dark.

###

The next morning, after a free breakfast and checking out, Weiss drove Pyrrha back to the dorm. Weiss, exhausted from endlessly replaying her conversations with Ruby in her head, collapsed into a chair as soon as she was back in their dorm. "I still can't believe how bad I screwed up. Best girl I ever met, and I drive her away forever."

"Best girl?" Pyrrha asked, as she dropped her handbag on the desk and began a set of sit-ups. "You - can - do - much - better," she bit out between reps.

"You weren't there," Weiss said, and rested her head in her hands. "She was… she  _ is  _ really special. She made me laugh."

"And then she made you cry." Pyrrha rolled over, and her shoulders flexed as she launched into a set of push-ups. "You tried, it didn't work, it's time to move on. It's best for her, and best for you. Live and learn, there's a lot of queer women in this town."

"I guess you're right," Weiss grumbled, but the notion of plunging into the dating scene left her feeling cold and small. Her heart twinged as she remembered silver eyes glowing like stars while they danced… She clenched her jaw and drove her fingernails into her elbows to distract herself. A hot tear slipped out of her eye and trickled down her fast, and Weiss wiped it away before Pyrrha could notice. But it left an itch in its wake, an itch no amount of rubbing could soothe.

###

Weiss came to Coach Fall's door and rapped on the doorframe. "Come in," Coach Fall's voice wafted from within. As Weiss came around the corner into the office, Coach nodded. "Weiss. Thank you for coming. Close the door, please."

Weiss closed the door behind her and took a seat before Fall's desk."You wanted to see me?"

Fall nodded, pulled a large envelope from a desk drawer and tossed it on the desk in front of Weiss. "Take a look at that and tell me what you think."

Curious, Weiss took the envelope, opened it, and extracted a single sheet of paper. When she turned the paper over, she almost dropped it in shock. Instead she froze and closed her eyes, not willing to examine the pictures closely until she could keep her reactions hidden behind her face. When her mask felt set in stone, Weiss opened her eyes and looked at the paper again.

It showed four grainy, low-quality images, all unmistakably from the Lavender Ball. In two, Ruby and Weiss walked up the lavender carpet arm-in-arm, shot from an odd low angle. In the third, Weiss crouched next to Ruby, pressing her lips to Ruby's nose, and Ruby's face was caught between a grin and a grimace. In the fourth, Weiss and Ruby stood out by the ship's rail with the harbor lights in the background, and Weiss leaned very close - kissably close - to Ruby.

Weiss held the pictures up to her face, as if to examine them closely, hiding her expression from Coach Fall. The pictures were undoubtedly authentic, but the odd low angle and the triangle of black cutting off the bottom corner of the second picture made Weiss think the camera had been hidden up someone's sleeve.

"Where… did you get these?" Weiss asked. She felt the slight quaver in her voice and hated it; she wanted to be upright and strong before Coach.

"From someone I know, who recognized you as one of my students. I had to spend a lot of money to keep this… person from taking these pictures to your father, or to the press." Cindy leaned back, her eyes narrow and intense, embers hidden and waiting… Weiss blinked away the strange thought. This was  _ Coach _ , the woman who'd offered sanctuary from the Schnee straightjacket, who'd mentored Weiss and nurtured her talent, who'd led her to victory and achievement. 

"Thank you for taking these off the market," Weiss said, trying not to gush. "And thank you for alerting me to their existence, I never would have thought - "

"I hope that's true," Fall interrupted, her voice going sharp. "I  _ hope  _ you weren't thinking. That's certainly preferable to you fraternizing with an enemy." Weiss froze and stared in incomprehension, and Fall leaned forward across her desk. "Because what I see, when I look at these pictures, is someone I rely on,  _ cavorting  _ with a player of a team that defeated her only hours before. I remember -" her voice rose slightly, stepping over Weiss' panicked denials, " _ your  _ failures being instrumental to defeat, and I'm wondering whether I saw failure on Saturday, or treachery."

Weiss stared at Coach Fall in utter disbelief, feeling like she'd taken a body blow, her hands clenching and unclenching on the desk. She swallowed a lump of fear and rage in her throat and forced her voice to work. "Failure. Ruby and I had a bet - a bet I was extremely motivated to win."  _ Not that winning would have made a difference,  _ some voice in the back of her head jeered. She ignored the voice, covered her pain. "It was nothing, just a little fling."

"So you say," Cindy said, her voice hard and flat as a handball court. "All I know is what I see, and what I see is you fraternizing with the enemy…  _ after  _ you said you wouldn't try such a ploy again." She stood and paced down the length of the narrow office, past Weiss' shoulder, and whirled to face Weiss' back. Weiss froze, staring at the desk, willing herself not to react, as she did when faced with one of her father's rages. If she said nothing, did nothing, then she could not make a mistake. The storm would blow over… "I need to know I can trust you not to betray me, Weiss," Fall said.

"You can trust me, Coach. I was - I thought she wouldn't be a rival after our game."

Fall took a half-step and put a hand on Weiss' shoulder, and she restrained her automatic flinch at the contact. "As I said, I want to believe that, miss Schnee. But actions speak louder than words."

Weiss swallowed, cleared her throat, and forced her voice to stay level. "What actions would regain your trust?"

"Good question," Fall's hand tightened on Weiss' shoulder, and Weiss imagined a core of ice through her spine, to keep herself from squirming under the pressure. "A demonstration of your loyalty. If this was just a little fling, then you can get  _ close  _ to Elsie Cunningham."

"Elsie…" Weiss recognized the name of Signal's goalie. A blonde sized to rival Pyrrha and Yang, rumors about her love-life swirled around the league. She apparently went through a succession of whirlwind flings with any woman but her teammates.

Fall's fingers tightened fractionally on Weiss' collarbone. "If you're clever, you won't need pillow talk to get information about their defensive tactics. But I  _expect_  that you will do what is necessary."

"I've seen their defensive tactics at the Vale-Signal game earlier this season," Weiss said. "I remember emailing you, detailing my observations, after that game."

"I saw that, and I have to wonder if I can rely on it," Coach said, and released Weiss' shoulder. As Coach returned to her desk chair, Weiss stared at her back and tried to sort out her conflicted feelings. Fall sat and idly brushed her fingers across her keyboard. "I'm very concerned about your erratic behavior, Weiss. A sexual relationship with your primary rival, your defiance of my authority after the last game… I'm very reluctant to report your behavior to your father, but I will if I feel it's in your best interest."

Weiss stared at her mentor for a long, bewildered moment before the words and their implications hit her like a fist to the stomach. He hands in her lap clenched stinging-hard, and she put her head down so Fall wouldn't see the sudden spike of rage in her eyes, nor the cold calculations spinning in her forebrain as an old and  _ discreet  _ set of childhood lessons slotted into place. "I understand."

"Do you, Weiss? Look at me." Fall's voice had gone gentle, confident in her victory.

Weiss squeezed her eyes shut, schooled her face into a pale, beaten mask that hid the half-formed plan behind her eyes and the rage in her heart. Only when she was confident the mask would hold did she look up at her coach.

Fall smiled thinly, and Weiss hoped her coach saw what she wanted to see. "Take those pictures with you, Weiss," Fall said. "As a... reminder."

"Yes, ma'am." Weiss slid the pictures back into their envelope, and pressed the paper to her chest as she turned from the desk. "I'll see you later."

"I expect a progress report by Thursday, Weiss," Fall's voice chased her out into the hallway.

Once she was out of Fall's domain, Weiss leaned against the wall and breathed out through clenched teeth, venting all her rage and fear and pain out in a harsh hiss.

"Weiss?" Pyrrha said from beside her, and she opened her eyes and looked up at her captain, changed and heading for practice. "You okay?"

"Talk to me after practice, our room," Weiss pushed away from the wall and turned away. She wanted Pyrrha's support, advice, counsel, help, but not now, not until she had her response and next steps all planned out. "See you later."

"Okay," Pyrrha said, but her tone was uncertain. Weiss turned down the stairwell and started back to her dorm.

  
  
  


 


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which an envelope gets passed around like a rumor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back. For the moment. Life is complicated, and all my writing time could disappear with no warning. I'm working on the next chapter, but it could be finished next week or next year.
> 
> Update: I got a job offer and will be moving across the country, so my writing time all went away. Next chapter is half done, but will be a while.
> 
> A friendly reminder: yes, I know that in canon, Weiss is not an only child. Sporting was plotted and outlined in the hiatus between season 1 and season 2, before Winter appeared even as a name.
> 
> Warnings for brief descriptions of war flashbacks.

 

The door rattled an instant before Pyrrha walked into their dorm room. "Hey, Weiss," she said cautiously. "You weren't at practice."

Weiss looked up from her business class homework and said, "Coach told me not to be there."

Cocking her head to one side, Pyrrha asked, "Why?"

In lieu of reply, Weiss held out the envelope Coach Fall had given her, and went back to her homework. From her side, she heard a sharp intake of breath. " _Weiss, what the hell?_ "

" _Someone_ gave those to Coach, and she decided to put a leash on me." Weiss said without looking up. She finished a sentence and smiled up at Pyrrha's ashen face. "If I don't do what she wants - and repeat my trick with Ruby on Elsie Cunningham - she'll release those pictures to my family, or the press. Either way, it would be bad. I know I don't deserve it, but I need your help."

"Weiss -" Pyrrha fell into the other chair at the desk and put down the photos with a slap. "I _swear_ , if you want, Jaune's sisters and I will tear the Ball organization apart, looking for whoever -"

"Do so," Weiss cut Pyrrha off, "but _discreetly_. I don't want Coach to know you're following up. And there's something else."

"Anything." Pyrrha leaned on her elbow, her face set in an almost-pleading expression, "Seriously, Weiss, I never would have imagined that -"

"I know." Weiss put out a placating hand. "I need you to notify Ruby and Yang that these pictures exist, and what comes next when they're released."

Pyrrha opened her mouth, closed it, and regarded Weiss for a long moment. Weiss could see Pyrrha's finely honed brain spinning into gear behind those emerald eyes. "Notify… Ruby?"

"I think it's easy to say that she _doesn't_ want to talk to me again," Weiss said, and Pyrrha nodded. "But they - both Ruby and her sister - need to know what's going to happen when Fall releases those photos."

"When, not if?"

"When," Weiss nodded firmly. "'Never give a blackmailer what they want, or they'll have you under control forever.'"

"That sounds like a quote." Pyrrha rubbed her chin. "Your father?"

Weiss shook her head. "A lesson in high school. Statistically, at least some of us were going to be blackmailed, just because of… who we were. Who our families were." Pyrrha's eyes widened, and Weiss responded with a thin smile. "They were thinking of protecting us from the consequences of torrid affairs with male models or rock stars, but the lessons apply to a too-cute handball player." Weiss picked up the photos to hide the twinge of regret in her heart.

"So," Pyrrha said into the silence, "What's going to happen when Fall releases the photos?"

Weiss shrugged. "If she takes them just to my father… it's not so bad. He's got a vested interest in keeping these hidden, too. If she goes to the local media back in Omaha, or to the rest of my family…"

"Wouldn't your family hush everything up?"

"Depends." Weiss put down the photos. "My family pretends to be united to protect the business from outside control, but my father and his siblings have been fighting for years behind closed doors. Father's faction is dominant right now, but my uncle Silberne and his party could take over if they make enough noise - like with a big, noisy scandal. Maybe one centered on Father's daughter, the one he held up as an emblem of his discipline and management."

"That's - eugh." Pyrrha rubbed at her forehead. "Okay, I get that, but I don't know how you survive in that snake pit."

"Once a Schnee, always a Schnee," Weiss said. "The point is, when Coach leaks those photos, there's going to be a spotlight on Ruby, and a swarm of investigators and reporters digging through her past, and her family, looking for anything unsavory. Anything they can use to smear me, or my father, by association."

"That's - insane." Pyrrha shook her head.

"Yes, it is. But everyone involved will be convinced that they're acting perfectly rationally." Weiss shrugged. "And I won't let Ruby and her family go through that with no warning. I don't want their first clue to be a paparazzi going through their trash. And that's why I need you."

"Why - I see. You need me to warn them for you?"

"Yes." Weiss nodded. "I'm sorry to exploit our friendship this way, but - I haven't had the best track record at this, and this has to be done diplomatically." She paused, then said, "Please don't tell them that it's Coach. I don't want Ruby doing anything… rash."

"I think you mean Yang, but I agree." One corner of Pyrrha's mouth quirked up. "No problem."

"Thank you, Pyrrha. I won't forget this."

Pyrrha grinned. "What are friends for?"

###

First, Pyrrha went to her computer. She had an e-mail address for Ruby Rose, from a directory kept by the League. She kept her message short and simple, without details:

**Dear Ruby,**

**I'd like to tell you about something very urgent, and I'd rather not put it in writing. Please call me at** \- her cell number - **whenever you can.**

**Pyrrha Nikos**

Whether Ruby would ever see her message, or if it went into a folder full of junk and spam, Pyrrha could not know. She gave her message a quick inspection, then sent it on its way.

She put the message out of her mind, and returned to her homework. After a few minutes, a new email notification popped up in a corner of her screen. When she clicked it, the message opened. Hope bloomed, then faded in her heart.

**You and Weiss can fuck off. Don't contact me again.**

**Ruby Rose**

**sent from my cell - excuse the typos! :)**

Pyrrha sighed, stared at the message, and thought for a long moment. Then she pulled out her cellphone and searched through her contacts. She hadn't talked to this person in years, not since before she'd left the Corps, and she hoped the number still worked.

The phone on the other end rang once, twice, then clicked. A voice made a wordless noise of inquiry, and Pyrrha's breath gusted out in recognition. "Hey Blue, it's Red," she said.

###

The next day, Pyrrha pushed through the rainbow curtains into the Black Bear, blinking as she went from the bright saturation of downtown Mistral's day into the bar's ill-lit gloom. After a moment, her eyes adjusted, and she saw a familiar golden mane behind the bar, rising above a couple people with matching bright-green hair, the only other people in the room. Pyrrha took a deep breath and walked to the bar, taking a stool on the other end from the others and setting her bag on the stool next to her. As she sat, Xiao Long caught sight of her and glared with lips tight-pressed and blazing eyes. She said something to her patrons, and both of them turned and glared at Pyrrha.

Pyrrha put on a mask of polite interest, not letting the anxiety in her gut show on her face. Her anxiety was silly and irrational, she told herself - she'd survived much worse places in her time in the Corps.

 _On the other hand, back then I had body armor and a weapon and my unit at my back,_ she thought. _Now it's just me._

Yang started walking over, polishing a glass with her hands and promising mayhem with her eyes. "Bar's for customers only, Nikos," she said.

Pyrrha didn't look away, just slipped a hand into her pants pocket, pulled out the five-dollar bill she'd wrapped around her phone in preparation for this moment, and slapped it on the counter. She'd learned from her first platoon sergeant that looking calm was all about looking like she controlled the situation. _All anxiety, all fear,_ he'd said, _is rooted in thinking that you won't control what happens. Look like you control the situation, and you will look like the coolest motherfucker in the room._ "Ginger ale, please?"

Yang stared at the bill for a long moment, then placed a single finger on Lincoln's face and dragged it toward her on the bar. She reached under the register for a counterfeit detection pen, swiped it across the bill from corner to corner, then scowled when the bill stubbornly refused to fail. The blonde whirled to the taps, filled a glass almost to the brim with ice, then added water and ginger ale from a spigot. She turned and set the glass in front of Pyrrha. "There. Drink it and get out."

Pyrrha ignored the snarl and pulled the glass close. "I need to talk to you."

Yang straightened and both her hands bunched into fists on the countertop. "Right. How did you find me? Who told you where I work?"

"I called in an old favor." Yang's knuckles went white on the counter, and Pyrrha went on, "You shouldn't be too mad at Ned - it was a really big favor I called in."

"What kind of favor?"

"He still has the scar, he said." Pyrrha put a finger just below her left armpit and drew it down her flank, almost level with her ribs.

Yang's violet eyes widened, then narrowed. "That was you, huh? Some favor."

"No. I killed the man who gave it to him." For a moment, the bar was gone, replaced by smoke and screaming, until Pyrrha tried to blink away the flashback. She took a deep breath, and slowly let it out, until the world was no longer divided into buddies and targets.

A big hand gently touched Pyrrha's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Pyrrha took another deep breath, let it out, and nodded. "Yeah."

"Ned gets the same look," Yang said, bending over and resting her elbows on the bar. "I guess I'm gonna hear you out, Nikos. But this better be good."

Pyrrha pulled the manila envelope out of her bag, and set it on the counter in front of Yang. "Weiss judged that Ruby needs to see these."

Yang opened the envelope, extracted the photos, and froze. Her shoulders tensed, her jaw clenched, and Pyrrha could hear the blonde's teeth grinding. Quickly, before Yang could detonate, Pyrrha said, "I should add, my boyfriend's sisters are some of the organizers of the Lavender Ball. Right now, they're looking into who took these pictures and sanctioning or prosecuting them. Quietly, I'd like to convey their sincere apologies for these, and a _promise_ that this will be rectified."

Yang's eyes lifted from the pictures to Pyrrha's face, and stared for a long moment. "You're telling me," she grated, "that _my sister_ was at the _Lavender Ball_ with Weiss Schnee, who she _hates_. Weiss Schnee may be the _only_ person my sister hates, and up until a few weeks ago, I didn't know it was physically _possible_ for Ruby to hate."

"As I understand it, Ruby proposed a bet on the outcome of our game. The stake was… a date, provided by the loser, followed by spending the night at a hotel room. After the game, I gave Weiss tickets to the Lavender Ball, and helped her prepare."

"You helped that little shit make another pass -"

"It was her way of apologizing for everything," Pyrrha held up her hands. "I didn't know she'd left Ruby in the middle of the night, until later, after Ruby did the same thing to Weiss."

"Ruby did _what_?" Yang stepped back from the bar, and ran up against the rack of glasses behind her. Her hands opened and closed on invisible throats. "Don't you dare try to tell me that bitch -"

Pyrrha pulled a small cream envelope out of her pocket and slapped it down on the counter in front of her. Neat square hand-drawn letters glittered under the bar lights, and Pyrrha raised her eyes to Yang's, matching the blonde glare for glare. " _This is what happened_ , and you can snarl all you want, but Weiss sent me here, to _warn_ you and Ruby, about these pictures, and what she thinks will happen next. You can ignore me, like Ruby did, and wake up to Ruby's picture on the news, and reporters camped outside your apartment. Or you can listen to what I have to say."

They stared for a long moment, Yang's violet eyes nearly glowing with rage, and Pyrrha felt herself tense for the twitch that would foretell a fist or a glass to her face. But Yang broke first, dropping her eyes to the countertop, and touching the small envelope with careful fingers, as if it were a wild animal that could hurt her. After a moment, Yang picked up the envelope, found the card within, and scrutinized it by the light of the cash register. Her face looked like it was carved from stone.

Yang dropped the envelope on top of the blackmail pictures and circled the bar to settle in a stool next to Pyrrha. "Explain everything," she grated. "Start from the beginning, don't leave anything out."

Hiding the relief fluttering in her stomach, Pyrrha lowered herself to her own stool. "According to Weiss, after the Vale-Signal game - "

 

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's been a while. I moved across the country and started a new full-time job that's been eating my brain most of the time. Thanks to everyone who's dropped a kudos or a comment while I've been away - I've seen all the kudos and comments, even when I wasn't able to respond. Especially gratifying have been those who've said that Sporting pushed them to write their own works. Keep it up, all you creators, and drop a link in my inbox here or on my Tumblr plotbunnyfarm.
> 
> And everyone... thank you. I mean it.
> 
> Now, where were we...

Ruby felt a smile come to her face as the door opened and closed. She finished her sentence, shoved her laptop off her lap, and walked out into the living room as a yowl of protest rose.

At the door, Sun was loudly trying to convince Yang that he'd been neglected, and she was crouching and scratching his ears. Ruby leaned against her doorframe and watched the cat writhe around her sister's hands. "He's upset because I won't let him do my homework. He's  _ so _ helpful."

Yang looked up at Ruby with a quirky smile. "How cruel could you be?" Her face fell, and she stood slowly and stretched, while Sun whined plaintively around her feet.

"Rough day at work?" Ruby asked. 

"Yeah," Yang said, with an oddly sad expression. Before Ruby could ask, Yang looked past her at the kitchen, where Ned was puttering around. "Ned, can you give us a minute?"

"Sure," Ned said, walking past them to the door. Yang sat on the couch, and Sun swarmed into her lap, pricking at her jeans with his claws. When the door closed behind Ned, Ruby flopped onto the couch next to Yang.

Sun whined at the vibration of the couch, or maybe the lap under him, but as Ruby settled in next to her sister, Sun sprawled across both their laps. One corner of Yang's mouth quirked up, and Ruby asked, "What's wrong?"

"Pyrrha Nikos came to the Black Bear today. Ruby…" Yang paused, and Ruby realized with a little shock that her sister was at a loss for words. "Did you go with Weiss to the Lavender Ball?"

"I - How did you get  _ that _ idea?" Ruby sat up straight and stared at her sister. Sun's claws pricked at her bare skin, objecting to her movement.

Yang fumbled in her bag, and slapped two envelopes down on the coffee table. The cream envelope on top, with her handwriting on its face, that Ruby had never thought she'd see again, sent Ruby scrambling away. She caught herself on the other side of the room, her legs stinging where Sun had scratched her, her heart thundering like a jackhammer in her ears. "W-where did you get that?" Ruby asked.

"Nikos," Yang grated. "Apparently, someone took pictures at the Lavender Ball, Schnee's being blackmailed, and any day we could have paparazzi scum camped outside. You wanna tell me your side now, Ruby? Because I thought you were too smart to mess around again with the ice queen - "

"Oh that's rich, coming from you!" Ruby snapped back, her fear and shame transmuting to sudden anger. "Weiss told me about your little visit to Mistral, and I don't think you were there to buy her a drink, were you? You could have been  _ arrested, _ Yang!"

"Yeah, I fucked up, but at least I realized it and walked away!" Yang was on her feet now too, advancing on Ruby. "At least I figured it was a bad idea and backed off before I could do any damage. Now Schnee's being blackmailed, and that's likely to splash onto us, as well!"

"Blackmailed?" Ruby took a step toward Yang. "Let the Ice Bitch in her closet deal with it, it's no skin off my nose if she gets outed-"

Yang grabbed the big manila envelope from the table and flung it at Ruby, so hard Ruby barely caught it. The pictures came tumbling out into Ruby's clutching hands, and she gasped. Yang stepped close to Ruby and grabbed the top page out of Ruby's hands, holding it in front of her eyes. "Never mind that being outed can ruin lives, Ruby, you want  _ that _ to be the first result when employers Google you? Or engineering schools?"

"No, but - but -" Ruby tried to call words from a chest that felt too tight to breathe from fear. Not fear of Yang, her sister had never raised a hand to her, but fear of the pictures, fear of the dire consequences for her future stemming from them, from a simple little satisfaction that hadn't turned out either simple or satisfying. "I - I never thought -"

"What were you thinking, Ruby?  _ Were _ you thinking, at all?" Yang snapped, throwing the picture aside.

"I - was - I was just -" The tension in Ruby's chest snapped, and its shock reverberated down into her legs. When her mind caught up, Ruby was already halfway down the alley, the asphalt slapping at the soles of her feet through her slippers. The cold night wind clawed at the tears running down her cheeks, drying them into tracks of ice.

Without slowing down the rhythm of her legs, Ruby thought about turning around, returning to the apartment that had grown too small, and answering Yang's questions. But she could not answer, even in her head, and the shocks of her footfalls, reverberating up through her legs and pounding on her stomach, broke up any thoughts she tried to put together. But the road beneath her feet asked no questions, demanded no explanations, and each footfall was followed by a blessed moment of quiet where nothing at all, not even her pain and fear and confusion, could quite touch her.

Ruby turned onto the street, and sped up slightly, chasing silence. Chasing peace.

###

Yang stared after her sister as Ned called Ruby's name out into the night. After a moment, Ned stuck his head in through the door. "Should we… go after her?"

Yang bit down on her tongue before it could whip Ned with her rage. Her hands opened and closed, drumming her frustrations on her palms rather than the walls, and to her ears the rhythm tapped out a one-two punch of  _ stu-pid, stu-pid, stu-pid _ … "No," she grated, when she had herself under control again. "I've never once caught her when she's run like that." She looked down, at her feet still weighed down by her motorcycle boots. "Get in here. We need to talk."

###

A pebble turned under her foot, and after a bewildering moment of weightlessness, the pavement came up and slammed Ruby in the side. All at once, awareness of her body cascaded into Ruby's consciousness, obliterating the desperate self-forgetfulness of her running trance. She flopped back on the concrete, and could not quite remember how to stand around the buzzing static in her brain. Her legs stung where Sun had scratched her, and a cold breeze made her cheeks itch where the wind had dragged tears across her skin. Her hands and knees stung where she'd broken her fall.

_ Right. Time to stand up, _ Ruby thought, and slowly pushed herself upright. Her muscles didn't want to cooperate, and her left ankle cried out in pain when she put weight on it. Even in the gloom, she could see it beginning to darken and swell. From the tremors rolling up and down her arms and legs, she'd been running full-out, something she didn't normally do when she was running to suppress thought. 

She looked around the at deserted street, the tight-packed houses leaking golden light through their screens of trees and hedges. Down at the end of the block, a street sign glittered faintly with reflected light. Ruby made herself limp over to the sign on unsteady legs and stared up at the reflective letters. ROSS shone from one sign, but because the light was bad, she had to squint and crane her neck to make out STURGEON on the other.

Ruby leaned back on her good leg and thought. She'd run over a mile by the shortest possible route, but her complaining leg muscles suggested she'd run much farther. She'd done it before, taking random turns through the grid to extend her run, when she was trying to quiet her anxieties, but never so hard, never so fast.

And never so fruitlessly. As the pieces of her thoughts left along her route caught up with her, guilt and fear started chasing each other through the hollow places in her chest. Ruby wrapped her arms around her chest and squeezed until her ribs groaned with the pressure, more to keep the feelings trapped within than to ward off the night's cold. She couldn't believe herself.

A car rolled down Sturgeon and turned away on Ross, and Ruby jumped. A hand patting her shorts for her phone encountered nothing but fabric, and she remembered that she'd left her phone on her desk, next to her homework. A more immediate anxiety moved into her heart, replacing the distant fear of the exposure of her sins. The neighborhood was mostly safe, but not completely.

She tested her weight on her bad ankle and thought about the distance back to the apartment. She had limped serious distances on banged-up knees and ankles before, but never starting when she was already worn-out.

Ruby's shoulders slumped. Despite her ankle, she wanted to start running and keep running, run until there was nothing left of her wrath, nothing left of her malice, nothing left of the horrible things she'd said to Yang.  _ No skin off my nose, _ she'd said.  _ Let the Ice Bitch in her closet deal with it, _ she'd said. Her own voice echoed around her skull, and Ruby wanted to clap her hands over her ears to shut out, for all the good that would do.

She breathed out, until her lungs were empty and no more breath would come, and still a heavy lump of shame stayed in her throat.  _ And here I thought I was a good person… that didn't last long, did it? Just as long as it took to ruin someone's life - and you enjoyed every minute of it. _

Ruby shook her head to dispel the bad thoughts, but they clung to the corners of her skull with the rest of her regrets and insecurities, ready for the right moment to reach out and trip her up.

She looked up at the street signs with new resolve, looking at the sign for Ross Street. Below the street name was a block number in a smaller font - unnoticed by most drivers, but useful to someone who navigated on foot, and who made it a point of pride to get out and back without relying on GPS. She wasn't familiar with this intersection, but she was no more than four blocks from someone who she knew and trusted.

Ruby turned and limped across Sturgeon, gritting her teeth against the pain ripping up her leg with every other step.


	15. Chapter 15

Four blocks later, Ruby stopped and turned to face a little house, its gold-lit windows half-hidden behind the round lobes of prickly pear cacti. While walking, she'd been too absorbed in gritting her teeth against her pain to think about what came next. Whether he was home. What he would say. What she would answer. She'd missed two weeks with nary a word, after all, and turning up on his doorstep at stupid o'clock with a busted ankle…

She sighed and turned to limp home, but when she put a little weight on her left leg, her ankle folded under her, and she ended up on her hands and knees with her left leg screaming from toe to hip. Silent for lack of breath, she bent over her knee and mouthed every horrible word she knew at the pavement. The swearing didn't fix her ankle, but the vehement words - or time to take a breath - took the razored edge off her pain and let her push herself upright on her good leg.  _ Alright, God, if You want me here, You got me here. _

Ruby carefully turned on her good foot and carefully shuffled up the walkway to the door, though the pain in her leg stole her breath every time she moved it. She leaned on the doorway for a long moment to catch her breath and blink back fatigue, then pressed the doorbell.

Bells echoed through the house beyond the door's frosted windows. After a moment, a shadow darkened the windows and the door opened. "Ruby? Are you alright?" A male voice asked, with concern but little surprise.

Ruby looked up at an older man, his lined face frowning over his vestments and collar. "Hey, Oz," she said. "Not quite. Could I borrow your first aid kit?"

"Of course, Ruby," Dr. Ozpin bent to support her left shoulder and help her inside.

###

Ruby wrapped her ankle in Dr. Ozpin's book-walled study, familiar with the smell of paper and coffee that seemed etched into the air. Ozpin brought her a cup of decaf coffee, loaded with cream and sugar. "So, should I text Yang that you came here?"

Ruby froze, then forced her hands to tie off the bandage. "Yes. Thank you. I kinda ran off without telling her."

"She called me about half an hour ago, and said that you'd gotten upset and gone for a run," Ozpin said carefully. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Ruby sighed. It was one thing to think about telling him about all her mistakes; it was another to sit in his study, where she'd sat with him many times in the last three years, and open her mouth and let her regrets out. Especially the one that sat at the bottom of her throat, sharp-edged and hungry, waiting under her fatigue and physical pain. "I made a mistake. Did something, it went wrong, and now it's this big, hairy, ugly thing, and I don't know how I can fix it."

"Sometimes, you can't fix things. Sometimes, all you can do is minimize the damage. Sometimes, all you can do is admit you were wrong, learn from it, and avoid repeating the error." Ozpin shrugged, a small elegant motion. "Why don't you tell me about it?"

Ruby's hands clenched together into a knot in her lap, and the lump in her throat seemed to double in size. She swallowed and forced her fingers to loosen and untangle. She took a deep breath, then started, "Two weeks ago -"

###

Once she started, the story flowed into Ozpin's comforting silence. At length, she finished telling the story of the last few weeks, ending with, "- and now she's being blackmailed, there's pictures of her and me at the Lavender Ball, and I dunno if it'll make trouble for Yang and me. It's all my fault, and… and I don't see how to make it right."

"I'm not sure it's all your fault," Ozpin said. "After all, you're not the one blackmailing this girl. You're not the one who took the pictures. And you're not the one who suggested going to the Lavender Ball. But I wonder - why did you make that bet with her in the first place? It doesn't sound much like you, and you didn't say why."

"I…" Ruby ran out of words, leaving her alone with the memory of Weiss, standing under her rain-dripping umbrella, her blue eyes bright with hope. She'd often daydreamed of making Weiss sorry, reducing the haughty pride in those blue eyes to tears. "I wanted her to feel how I felt. I thought, if I turned it around on her, she'd get what she did to me." She looked up into Ozpin's eyes, and something in their depths made her quail inside. Before she could quite think, she blurted out, "It was! Eye for an eye, right?"

One of Ozpin's eyebrows quirked up. "I know you know your Bible better than that. 'You have heard that it was said,  _ Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. _ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also,'" he quoted.

"So I should just lay down and let her walk over me?" Ruby blurted, knowing she had the words wrong, but unwilling to admit it.

"No," Ozpin said with a single finger. "That is not what that passage means, quite. I know I made a sermon on Matthew 5 a few months ago, Ruby. I know you quite admired it. Where did the word 'resist,' come from in the original Greek?  _ Antistenai. _ What does that mean?"

"'To stand against,' like soldiers in a battle. It means, to resist violently," Ruby felt the words pulled out of her. "It means, to resist someone on their own level. All of Jesus' examples - turning the other cheek, going two miles, giving your coat - were either rising above oppression or using the oppressor's rules against them."

"That's right," Ozpin said in a low voice. "So what did you do, with your bet - with your trick - and your retribution? Did you rise above her lies, or did you sink to her level?"

"At least I didn't sleep with her," Ruby snarled, the savage words erupting out of some deep hurting place in her heart, spoken by something in her that had been sorely wounded, and wanted only to wound and hurt in turn. She leaned back away from Oz, away from her words, as if once loosed they could turn around and attack her.

"No, you didn't," Ozpin replied evenly. "But you could have said 'No,' when she tried to reconcile with you, and walked away from her, instead of tricking her so cruelly. You could have enforced your boundaries and left her there, to learn her own lessons, instead of inflicting the same pain she inflicted on you. What did you learn from that pain she inflicted, Ruby?"

Ruby just shook her head. "Not to trust her. Not to trust pretty eyes and a pretty voice and a cute ass." She stared down at the floor for a long moment, her lips pressed tight, but the words slipped out in a whisper: "No matter how much I want her."

Ozpin was silent for a long moment. "Do you think she learned anything more than you did?"

"Probably not," Ruby growled, and glared up at Ozpin. "That's all spilled milk now, Oz. My  _ problem _ was this blackmail thing."

"That, I don't know much about," Ozpin said after a beat, and Ruby regretted snapping at him, but she'd needed to divert the conversation. "You should probably ask the person who knows the situation best - if you feel safe contacting her, of course. You may use the Church conference room, or the garden, as a friendly public location."

Ruby swallowed back a sudden spurt of bile at the mere thought of speaking to Weiss again, but in the hollow place left by weeping out her pain and fear, the situation stood out starkly. The way the warning had been conveyed from Weiss to Pyrrha to Yang to her, she knew very little about what had happened and could happen. She nodded, sharply. "I'll do that. Thanks."

"You're always welcome, Ruby." Ozpin squeezed Ruby's shoulder. "Now, do you need a ride home, or do you want to sleep on my couch again?"

Ruby didn't want to go home, but she didn't really  _ want _ anything. All her wants had just let her down or betrayed her, leaving her standing alone in the middle of a sea of shoulds and needs. She had to go home eventually, might as well rip the bandage off. "I think… I need a ride home. If it's not too late." She tried to put a bit of her old charm in her voice, but couldn't quite find the effort.

"Of course not, Ruby." Ozpin held out a hand, and Ruby took it, for lack of anything better to do.

###

Tuesday morning, walking between classes, Weiss automatically checked her phone and noticed a new text message, from a familiar number that made her breath catch in her throat and her heart squeeze in her chest.  **We need to talk about pictures. When can you meet?** An address Weiss didn't recognize followed, not far from Ruby's home.

Weiss's fingers typed  **Yes** without any input from her brain, then her mind caught up and erased the letters. She stepped out of the flow of her fellow students and Googled the address. A church, small and modern, built like a community center, a rainbow flag flying over the front door. She typed instead,  **Is it a safe place?**

The reply was instantaneous.  **The safest. And it's the only place I'll meet you.**

Weiss tamped down a surge of irritation at Ruby's defensiveness, but given all that happened, and all Weiss had done, she couldn't really blame the Vixen for prioritizing her safety in the face of the unknown. And she had an obligation to make sure Ruby knew what Weiss had unintentionally inflicted on her.

Still, there was that little demon voice, in the back of Weiss' mind, that whispered  _ you've got a chance with her, you can have her, _ and kept suggesting arguments and entreaties to lure Ruby back into her bed.

With a little wrangling and checking of schedules, they agreed to meet after the Vale-Atlas game on Friday. Weiss put her phone away and resumed walking to class, rehearsing Ruby's briefing in her head.

And not letting the toxic whisper of hope into her thoughts. Much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, this is still going. Been a while, and then the world turned upside down and I needed to write on something fluffy.
> 
> And this was the closest thing to fluffy I had. Welp.


	16. Chapter 16

Leaning on a crutch, Ruby limped into the sanctuary and let the door close silently behind her. The afternoon sunlight streamed through the stained glass windows and cast a golden glow on the simple wooden crucifix rising from the altar, and Ruby sank into one of the back pews and bowed her head. In mid-afternoon on a weekday, the sanctuary was silent but for the faint whine of the air conditioning, and in that whine she thought she could hear an echo of the music that filled the church every Sunday morning, when Jane made the piano in the corner sing so sweetly and every voice rose in celebration.

Ruby locked her eyes on the crucifix, and her lips twisted in exasperation. _Where were You, when she was using me? Why couldn't I tell that she was going to do that?_

_And where were You, when I was wrecking everything?_

Dr. Ozpin's line kept repeating in her head. _"But you could have said 'No,' when she tried to reconcile with you, and walked away from her, instead of tricking her so cruelly_ ," he'd said. _"You could have enforced your boundaries and left her there, to learn her own lessons, instead of inflicting the same pain she inflicted on you. What did you learn from that pain she inflicted, Ruby?"_

Reading stories and plays as a kid, she'd never understood baroque plots of revenge - why bother to go out of your way to hurt someone more than you had to, for the sake of pride? She thought she understood now. Wounds like those Weiss had inflicted on her - wounds to her pride, to her worth - cut deep and made her bleed not pain but rage. She'd always known she'd been loved - by Dad, by Mom, rest her soul, by Yang, by her team, by her teachers. Perhaps, she'd realized while staring at her bedroom ceiling, she'd always thought she'd be loved by everybody.

And then in walked Weiss, beautiful Weiss, elegant Weiss, with her lovely long hair and icy blue eyes, and her kisses and her listening, and Ruby had fallen head-over-heels. She tried, experimentally, to call up that giddy excitement from their first date, like fizzy soda bubbles tickling her heart.

Instead, she couldn't stop thinking of Weiss standing under her umbrella, elegant and poised even with hopes dying in her eyes, and acting like she hadn't done anything wrong, like the weather had rained out a picnic. Not like she'd used Ruby in a way that infected everything else with doubt.

Ruby had been rejected before, in her awkward attempts at romance. Sometimes harshly, rejected when she'd misread a situation or misspoken or let her mouth run away with her. But she'd never been _used_.

And remembering how Weiss had used her, used her for her body, used her to beat her team, burned a dozen little fires of shame and rage in her stomach. And then Weiss had the _gall_ to claim it wasn't her fault, like seduction and betrayal were just part of doing business.

The worst part of it was, Ruby had been _so_ tempted when Weiss had tried to seduce her again. She'd wanted so badly to believe that the heiress actually _wanted_ her, this time! Only the fact that Ruby couldn't tell what Weiss _really_ wanted from her, under the tempting facade, had held her back from taking Weiss into her arms, and her bed, and her heart.

The door opened and closed behind her, and careful footsteps approached the pew. Ruby smiled, despite her foul mood. Yang had never liked the church, joking about catching fire as soon as she crossed the threshold, but Ruby thought her sister just felt awkward and uncertain in such a delicate place.

Yang crouched down next to the pew, her hands in her pockets. "Weiss is here with Pyrrha Nikos," she said quietly, for Ruby's ears alone. "It's your decision. You can back out, and I can ask the questions."

Ruby closed her eyes and sighed. _It was my decision to try and hurt her,_ she wanted to say. Instead, she replied, for Yang's ears alone, "I know. I still have to do this."

Ruby genuflected to the altar, then pushed herself to her feet and grabbed her crutch off the end of the pew. She refused Yang's support as she turned and limped to the door.

Yang led her to the church's little conference room, then put a hand on the door to stop Ruby opening it. "Do you want me in there?"

Ruby shook her head. "I think it's best if we can be honest with each other."

Yang frowned, but pulled the door open, and Ruby limped through.

###

The door to the bland little conference room opened, and Ruby Rose limped through, leaning on a crutch. She wore knee-length shorts and a Vale Vixens T-shirt, and an ankle brace on one foot. Pyrrha rose automatically as Ruby entered, and Weiss, trained to corporate etiquette despite her suddenly racing heart, followed suit.

Ruby stopped and leaned on one of the chairs. "Could you give us the room?" she asked Pyrrha.

Pyrrha glanced aside at Weiss. "Do you want a witness?"

Weiss shook her head. "I want room to be frank," she said. One side of Ruby's mouth quirked up, making Weiss' heart lurch in her chest, but the smile vanished as quickly as it came.

Pyrrha nodded and slipped out past Ruby, closing the door behind her. Ruby leaned her crutch against the table and sat across from Weiss. "So, you're being blackmailed." Her voice held nothing, no clue to her intent or feelings.

Weiss swallowed a sudden lump in her throat and nodded. She'd rehearsed this speech many times in the last week, but she'd pictured Ruby being fearful, angry, confused, naive. She hadn't pictured Ruby being _nothing_ , as if the enormous danger were just an unpleasant obligation to be endured. Then again, up until Ruby had enacted her revenge at the hotel, Weiss had thought the girl to be utterly transparent.

Weiss smothered her feelings and said, "Yes. And let me just say how _profoundly_ sorry I am that this impacted your life. I know you don't want me in your life, but if there's anything I can do to -"

"Can it, princess," Ruby cut her off. "Just tell me what I need to know."

Weiss converted a wince to a blink and said, "Very well. First off, my family is split over control of our companies. I won't bore you with the details, but one thing you might see is people from SchneeCorp coming around and asking you about me, or asking you to sign some kind of non-disclosure agreement."

"I'm surprised you're not pushing me to sign one now," Ruby growled.

"That would be a profoundly stupid thing to do, and something that I can't ask of you, given the way I've abused your trust." Weiss suppressed the weightless vibration in her stomach. "The bottom line is, never sign _anything_ without consulting me or a lawyer, or preferably both. Even if it's supposedly from me. Because I won't ask you to sign anything, now or later, if it's at all in my power to decide. I won't have you pay the price for my error in judgement."

"Error in judgement. Is that what we're calling it now?" Ruby bit out through gritted teeth. Weiss' face flushed in shame and she opened her mouth to apologize, and Ruby cut her off with a wave. "So, are the paparazzi a real thing, or was Yang exaggerating that?"

"No, it's quite a real possibility," Weiss said. "It all depends on who my - my blackmailer sends the pictures to. The local papers around here would probably not out me, but the media back home in Omaha - especially those papers affiliated with other factions…" she felt her explanation expanding out of control and cut it off. "They likely won't have the budget to send someone out here, but they might call you, pretending to be the company, or me. They might try and threaten you with legal action. Ignore those or contact me, because you've done _nothing_ legally wrong."

"And what do I do, contact you and tell them nothing?" Ruby rotated her chair back and forth in little arcs, her face turned toward the ceiling, but Weiss was sure that the Vixen was paying very close attention.

"You can tell them as much or as little as you like," Weiss said. "You may be best served by a simple request for privacy, and no further comment, but I admit that's what also works best for me. Just keep in mind, the ones covering this story will be the ones who care only for clicks or views, or new stringers who need attention. Honesty takes a back seat to shock value for them. The less you give them, the less chance you become the story."

"You sound like you've done this before," Ruby said with some disdain.

"It's my first time," Weiss said, "but we learned about all this in high school, and I paid very close attention. I knew that… well, I'd have to be in the closet for a long time, given the situation in my family."

Silence fell for a long moment, and Weiss dragged the conversation back on topic. "But anyway, I'd appreciate a heads-up if the media contacts you, but that's up to you. I can certainly understand it if you never want to be in touch with me again."

"You can understand it?" Ruby laughed up at the ceiling, a joyless caw that twisted Weiss' stomach. Ruby ran a hand through her crimson bangs and glared at Weiss with rage burning in her eyes. "Just shut up already! You don't have a _clue_ how it feels to be _used_ and abandoned like that!"

Weiss rolled her seat back, her stomach pinching with shame. She pushed down the unproductive emotion, but it welled up and her control snapped. "Abandoned… that I know now," the words leaped over the lump in her throat. "Used? Yes. I shouldn't have, and I'd give anything to go back, wake up next to you in the morning, and never mention it again. I wish I hadn't left you, I wish I hadn't used you." She locked eyes with Ruby. "I did you wrong, and now… all I can do is pick up the pieces."

"So why did you?" Ruby asked. "Why did you use me like that? You sure didn't seem sorry about it before."

Weiss leaned back and thought about the question. Ruby deserved a better answer than her half-baked excuses. "I was deep in rationalizing what I did on impulse," Weiss admitted. "I kissed you, in the locker room… I don't know why. Everything after that, I did so that that… would be okay. So that I wouldn't… betray my team by being attracted to you."

Weiss brought her gaze down to find Ruby staring at her open-mouthed. Well, laid out that way, the whole chain of logic sounded quite mad. "I was raised to be the best, always... or else I was nothing. Being attracted to an opponent wasn't acceptable. I had to convince myself that I was doing it for the team, for my coach. Otherwise, it wasn't okay, no matter how pretty you are." Weiss' courage failed and her eyes dropped to the table, and she barely bit back her more conflicted desires, her desire to see Ruby hurt and broken, her desire for revenge on Ruby for no greater sin than winning. That wrath, and the ugly thoughts that had her lying awake at night, were her burden alone.

After a moment, Ruby closed her mouth and narrowed her eyes at Weiss. "What brought this change of heart?"

"Getting a taste of my own medicine, I think," Weiss shrugged. "I don't think I had thought through… how hurtful it was. So I have to say, I'm very sorry, and I was wrong to use and abandon you like that."

Ruby sighed, her shoulders slumping, though Weiss could not tell why. "For… whatever it's worth to you, I forgive you. And I'm sorry, that I tricked you in return. I shouldn't have; I should have just… left you, standing in the rain."

It was Weiss' turn to gape, at words she never would have expected. The idea that Ruby had anything to apologize for left her utterly speechless. "I forgive you, but I don't see how you have anything to apologize for. Surely I hurt you worse than you ever hurt me."

"It's not like we have to _measure_ hurt, as if it were inches of iron rebar," Ruby rolled her eyes. "And yours… doesn't excuse me. Your tricks didn't justify my sin, or make them a right or smart thing to do."

"Sin?" Weiss' eyebrows rose. "I remember you being very enthusiastic in the sin that night."

"What - that?" Ruby's eyebrows lifted slightly, and a faint flush rose in her cheeks. "By my theology, that was not sin. A sin is something that hurts someone." Ruby's voice sounded oddly practiced, and Weiss thought she heard someone else's cadence in hers. Then the Vixen's voice dropped, and she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "The sin was, I gave in to my pride and wrath, and the temptation to hurt you. And nothing you did, or could have done, could have justified my cruelty."

Weiss just stared. All the words had made sense, but strung together, she could not quite wrap her head around them. Yet her mind circled them over and over like a rat trying to get into a box, chasing some nugget of meaning.

Ruby shook her head and bit her lip. "But that," she said, "is beside the point. Is there anything else I need to know?"

Weiss thought about it, her brain running down everything she knew, but her mind kept returning to Ruby's words. She shook her head to clear and focus her thoughts. "No. But if you have any questions, or need anything clarified, please don't hesitate to contact me."

"Yeah, like I'd want to talk to you," Ruby grabbed her crutch and pushed herself upright. "Thank you for warning me."

Before Weiss could gather her wits and summon a token goodbye, Ruby had opened the door and exited the room. The tap-tap-tap of her crutch on the wooden floor carried to Weiss' ears.

Pyrrha entered the room and rapped her knuckles against the table. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I…" Weiss rubbed at her face. She didn't know how to think, but something felt wrong. She didn't know how to feel. It was over, Ruby was warned, and now… she had nothing to do but wait for whatever happened next.

 _And I didn't make a fool of myself_ , she thought as she stood and followed Pyrrha out of the church. _I didn't try to draw Ruby back to me. I didn't let my hopes take over. Kept it professional._

_Go me._


End file.
